Family Court legal aid bill $33m

More than $33 million in legal aid was paid to lawyers working behind the closed doors of the Family Court in the past year.

Official figures show 39 per cent of all legal aid - totalling $85.6 million - was paid to Family Court lawyers in the year to March 31.

Legal aid can also be paid in criminal and civil cases, and for appearances before the Waitangi Tribunal.

Act MP Muriel Newman said the figures showed the Family Court was in urgent need of an overhaul.

"This is a lot of money that isn't subjected to any scrutiny because the court is so restrictive in terms of public access to it," she said.

"If the public could see how and where this money was being spent, people could feel more comfortable."

The Law Society family section chairman, David Burns, said legal aid was not a "gravy train" for lawyers.

The top hourly rate available in legal aid work was $140. Once overheads were removed, the lawyer was left with about a third of this.

"Many lawyers have stopped taking legal aid work because the money is so bad."

Dr Newman said New Zealand should look at copying the Australian model for Family Court hearings, where the media could attend and report proceedings, but not name those involved.

She said a lack of analysis meant it was impossible to tell how much legal aid had been spent on appeals against decisions in the Family Court that could take months to work through.

"In Australia, the removal of restrictions and access to the Family Court brought a dramatic drop in the amount of legal aid paid for appeals," she said.

Families were suffering in a system that was open to abuse because it was not subject to public scrutiny.

Mr Burns said the Legal Services Agency, which monitors legal aid payments in New Zealand, watched expenditure carefully.

Lawyers were asked to supply quotations for jobs and had to meet them.

The amount spent on legal aid in the Family Court had dropped in the past two years - about $39 million was paid in 1999-2000.

- NZPA