KEY POINTS:
In March last year, a Blenheim law firm stopped taking legal aid cases, saying they were losing money on them.
The firm, which did the majority of the region's Family Court cases, said red tape and low pay rates meant it could not afford to continue legal aid work.
Its decision left clients stranded, with some women having to represent themselves in court to get protection orders against violent partners.
New Zealand Law Society president Chris Darlow told NZPA there was a national shortage of lawyers prepared to do legal aid Family Court work, and the Family Court system was in danger of grinding to a halt.
He said lawyers simply could not afford to undertake the work, because pay rates had not changed for 11 years.
Those holding out hope the Government would give them more money got more potential clients instead when the Legal Services Amendment Act 2006 came into effect last Thursday.
The act increased the eligibility threshold for legal aid, making it available to a further 400,000 New Zealanders.
It included establishing a system to review pay rates. But with the process just beginning, the rates are not likely to rise any time soon.
Mr Darlow said increasing the threshold meant there would be more people qualifying for legal aid, but not enough lawyers who could afford to do the work.
"We welcome the fact that more people can qualify for legal aid, but if it was going to be an effective move they had to review the rates at the same time," he said.
There were already big problems with access to legal aid, Mr Darlow said.
In Marlborough no lawyers could afford to do Family Court work and in Central Otago just three lawyers could.
The problem was bad in the cities as well and bringing lawyers in from other parts of the country to cover shortfalls was not a satisfactory practice, he said.
"If you were seeking legal advice in the family area and you had no money to pay for a lawyer, no matter where you were in the country you'd find difficulty in finding a lawyer who could afford to do it for you."
Family Court legal aid cases were "very involved", requiring a lot of preparation and often urgent work, he said.
There were 2963 lawyers listed to do legal aid work last year, up from 2908 in 2005.
But in reality the number of those who were actually doing legal aid cases was declining, Mr Darlow said.
"You might have a practitioner on the list, but they are simply not doing the work any more because they can't afford to."
The Law Society welcomed the pay review, but Mr Darlow said the process was going to take far too long.
"The real concern now is we're not going to see the rates actually increasing until 2009, which is more than two years away and that's just hopeless."
Justice Minister Mark Burton said legal aid eligibility thresholds had not been reviewed since 1987 and there was enough evidence to suggest that many New Zealanders, who were ineligible to receive legal aid, could not pay a lawyer's fees.
"It was our first priority to ensure that low and modest income New Zealanders have access to justice, which is why the Government has changed eligibility thresholds."
The pay review was important and it would take into account the changes which came into effect last week, he said.
National Party associate justice spokeswoman Kate Wilkinson said the new legislation was putting people who already qualified for legal aid at risk.
She had received reports from Women's Refuge in Marlborough which said because of a shortage of legal aid lawyers, women were being forced to represent themselves in court.
Auckland District Law Society president Gary Gotlieb said the court system was already under pressure and the new legislation could only make it worse.
"I can see the Family Court just going into total disarray."
Mr Gotlieb said he still did the odd legal aid case.
But he only took cases for people he knew personally or had represented in the past, which was the case for many other lawyers.
Lawyers had been discussing a pay increase with the Government for eight years now and it was well overdue, he said.
"They all talk about this access to justice and they've had plenty of time to make some improvement on legal aid and they just haven't."
Mr Gotlieb said the Government was given a summary by a forensic accountant in 2005 of what it cost an average size law firm to do legal aid. That showed lawyers were at most making a small amount of money from legal aid cases and in some cases not even covering overheads.
Another problem was many of the lawyers prepared to do legal aid cases were inexperienced, he said.
"People want to be properly represented by experienced lawyers and experienced lawyers cannot afford to do it."
Minting it?
* Lawyers get paid between $95 and $165 an hour by the Government for legal aid cases.
* The pay rate does not attract many experienced lawyers, who are normally paid two to three times this amount.
- NZPA
