More law firms refusing legal aid work

Dissatisfaction among lawyers with the legal aid system is spreading with some law firms refusing legal aid cases.

The Auckland District Law Society said some Auckland firms now refused to do legal aid. Low pay rates and difficulties with dealing with the Legal Services Agency were two of the main worries.

"It's the administration and the stupid bureaucracy of things. It's completely frustrating and petty," the society's legal aid committee convenor, Colleen Newton, said in the latest issue of Law News.

She said people wanting legal aid had to complete an eight-page form and produce supporting information including copies of proceedings, and their income details for the last 12 months.

Earlier this year the New Zealand Law Society said competent lawyers were turning away legal aid cases because they could not afford to do the work.

Auckland society president Gary Gotlieb said he continued to do legal aid because of his conscience and not for money.

"Would you do it for half to a third of what you normally get paid? And you have to argue for the hours you get paid," he said in the magazine.

He called the legal aid rates paid to lawyers "lousy".

He said miscarriages of justice were occurring and the bulk of criminal appeals related to inexperienced lawyers.

The magazine said that in March a Blenheim firm said it would no longer do legal aid work that had mostly consisted of family law.

It listed seven reasons:
* the low rate paid
* difficulty in getting extensions
* the cost of managing the systems to ensure they complied with Legal Services Agency requirements
* the unreasonableness of some of those requirements
* lack of funding for some aspects of file and case management
* pressure from clients to provide legal aid services to a standard the Legal Services Agency would not fund
* the Family Court's expectation that lawyers would provide a standard not funded by the agency

It was later reported that Blenheim faced a dire shortage of family legal aid lawyers, which was a huge concern to the local Women's Refuge.

New Zealand Law Society president Chris Darlow said in January miscarriages of justice might be occurring because competent lawyers were turning away legal aid cases because they couldn't afford to do the work.

Last year the Law Society asked Justice Minister Mark Burton for a full review of legal aid rates which were at 1996 levels.

- NZPA