Referral to a provider and appointing your facilitator
In pre-sentence cases, after the judge has decided that a case can proceed to restorative justice, a referral to a provider will be made (by the judge) and a restorative justice practitioner will be appointed to facilitate the restorative justice conference. An enquiry, as per the Entering Restorative Justice page, can prompt a provider to contact the court and see if the case could be referred.
In post-sentence and community cases, any party can contact a provider to initiate a restorative justice process. This can be done by following the process on the Entering Restorative Justice page.
Once the provider has received a referral, they will initiate a process that will appoint a facilitator.
Before the conference
A trained facilitator will have a pre-conference meeting with everyone involved individually. They will talk with you to make sure restorative justice is appropriate for you.
You need to meet the facilitator
At the pre-conference meeting the facilitator will:
explain the restorative justice process and that it is voluntary and confidential
tell you the sort of things that might be talked about at the conference
describe the sort of agreements that can be made
explain how everyone will be kept safe and be supported
encourage you to involve support people (such as your family or friends)
encourage you to ask questions
The facilitator will talk to both the offender and the victim, separately.
The facilitator can decide not to go ahead with a conference for many reasons, including safety and suitability for all participants.
Who else might attend a conference?
You will be encouraged to include family/whānau or friends to support you at the conference. Support people get a chance to speak at the conference. In family harm cases, support people are a mandatory requirement under the Ministry of Justice standards.
The facilitator may ask if you agree to other people attending the conference, such as police or a probation officer, your lawyer, or a community representative. The facilitator will ask if you need an interpreter or any other specialist support person to come to the conference.
Your cultural needs will be considered
Your cultural needs are an important part of restorative justice. The facilitator will ask what is culturally important to you. For example: use of mihi, karakia, prayer or other rituals, a particular location for the conference, or a cultural support person to attend.
