Biggest legal aid changes in decades come into force today

The biggest overhaul of the legal aid system in decades comes into force today.The Legal Services Act 2011, passed by Parliament this year, is a major part of the government's response to Dame Margaret Bazley's 2009 report which identified system-wide failings and called for urgent action to rebuild trust and confidence in the system.

Justice Minister Simon Power said it was designed to deliver high quality legal services and access to justice to the most vulnerable people in society.

The Act's key features include:

A new quality framework for all legal aid lawyers. This includes a new approval process to ensure they are competent and new performance tests to ensure the quality of their services once they are approved. An independent review authority will be established to review approval decisions made by the Secretary for Justice;
The disestablishment of the Legal Services Agency and the transfer of its functions to the Ministry of Justice;
An independent statutory officer, the Legal Services Commissioner, who will be responsible for granting legal aid to individuals and ensuring the independence of lawyers in the Public Defence Service; and
Replacing the Legal Aid Review Panel with the Legal Aid Tribunal. The tribunal will review legal aid granting decisions made by the Legal Services Commissioner.

Mr Power said quality issues had largely been addressed through the legislation and he was now focused on closing the $402 million gap in the legal aid budget over the next five years.

In April the Government announced proposals to close $138m of the gap by adjusting legal aid eligibility, expanding the Public Defence Service, re-introducing a user charge for some cases and introducing fixed fees for some others.

NZPA
Fri, 01 Jul 2011

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Biggest legal aid changes in decades come into force today