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Substandard lawyers named and culled from legal aid

It has been a long time coming and it's not a surprise but finally steps are being taken to cull substandard lawyers from the burgeoning legal aid gravy train.South Auckland lawyers Iuni Sapolu and Josie Fuimaono-Sapolu and west Auckland barrister Brett R

Jock Anderson
Thu, 07 Oct 2010

It has been a long time coming and it's not a surprise but finally steps are being taken to cull substandard lawyers from the burgeoning legal aid gravy train.

South Auckland lawyers Iuni Sapolu and Josie Fuimaono-Sapolu and west Auckland barrister Brett Ravelich have had their legal aid listing approvals cancelled for failing to met the standards and obligations required.

Between them they received just under $2 million over the last four years.

They are the first public casualties caught in the tightening of taxpayer funded legal services in the wake of Dame Margaret Bazley’s long overdue review of legal services.

The National Business Review has campaigned for many years against the rising legal aid bill, the ease with which legal aid is granted and the incompetence of some legal aid lawyers.

Legal aid cost taxpayers more than $160 million last year, up 19% on the previous year, with increasing amounts being paid out on Family Court and Treaty of Waitangi cases.

Names of lawyers who fail to meet the standards and obligations required will now be published on the Legal Services Agency (LSA) website.

In a website statement, LSA general manager Stuart White said the three lawyers' legal aid clients had been notified and would be reassigned to other lawyers by their local legal aid office.

“Depending on the circumstances, it may be impractical to reassign when a matter is nearly complete. However, these lawyers will not be assigned new clients and all cases will be reassigned or completed within a specific timeframe,” Mr White said.

He said the LSA was working to improve the quality of legal aid representation following Dame Margaret Bazley’s review of the legal aid system, which found significant issues with the quality of services and with the mechanisms to manage the quality and efficiency of services.

“Legal aid is publicly funded and the public need to have confidence in the quality and professional integrity of the services provided by legal aid lawyers,” Mr White said.

“We recognise that by far the majority of the 3,000 legal aid lawyers provide very good service, and act with integrity. However, we inform the public which lawyers can do legal aid work, so we should also ensure the public knows which lawyers cannot."

"The names of legal aid lawyers whose listings are cancelled for failing to meet quality and service standards will now be published on the LSA website whenever a cancellation is completed. The other grounds for cancellation are administrative and these lawyers’ names will not be published but are removed from the online lawyer listing as part of the regular monthly update.

"In general, the Legal Services Agency will cancel a legal aid lawyer if they are not supplying services to a standard that is acceptable to the agency.

"Cancellation is not decided through a public tribunal or court but follows an internal review so there are restrictions under the Privacy Act on the information that can be given about individuals.”

Mr White said the LSA will not publish the names of lawyers under investigation or give details on investigations that are under way because these need to be completed fully and fairly, and in a way that won’t prejudice the outcome.

He said the LSA acted on all complaints so the number of investigations changes as they were completed or initiated and can vary week by week.

Jock Anderson
Thu, 07 Oct 2010
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Substandard lawyers named and culled from legal aid
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