Reminder – Update Legal Aid Services when FV matters are finalised
12 March 2026
Please advise Legal Aid Services when family violence proceedings are disposed, but other matters on the grant continue. Legal Aid Services requires the date of disposal, which can be included with your final invoice for the family violence matter.
This information is needed because it may affect the client’s final repayment amount and helps us calculate this correctly.
Changes to alcohol and other drug (AOD) reports
5 March 2026
The Ministry of Justice is introducing an approved alcohol and other drug (AOD) report writer service in June 2026.
The new service will provide a panel of qualified AOD report writers who are approved by the Ministry to provide AOD reports for criminal cases in New Zealand courts. Procurement for AOD report writers to join the panel will start on 5 March 2026.
AOD report writers on the panel will use a report template that was developed in consultation with judiciary and will receive a fixed rate per report. Report writers will be required to deliver reports 13 days before the sentencing date.
The new service will ensure that all participants receive the same quality AOD reports and that judges receive consistent information to inform sentencing decisions.
Reports from AOD report writers from the panel will be pre-approved legal aid disbursements.
Legal aid lawyers who choose to request AOD reports from non-Ministry-approved AOD report writers will need to continue to request an amendment to grant.
The Ministry of Justice has published information on legal aid payments to firms in the 2024/25 financial year.
Legal Services Commissioner, Tracey Baguley, says the data shows payments to 1437 firms whose legal aid providers undertook work on a range of cases in the criminal, civil and family courts and a number of specialist courts and tribunals. The Ministry spent $308 million on legal aid in 2024/25 which is an increase of $23 million on the year before.
There are currently about 2691 private lawyers approved to provide legal aid services, working for firms or independently.
The named firms can have a number of approved providers.
The payments to firms are for legal services provided by approved providers under the legal aid scheme and may not have been made directly to any individual named in this report.
The total amount payments include the fees of approved providers, including those claimed on behalf of other approved providers, and disbursements for general office costs, travel costs, and special disbursements, which include fees for agents, expert witnesses, forensic tests, interpreters and special reports, such as medical or valuation reports.
Disbursement payments relate to the amount of disbursements paid from the payment total for each firm.
Health, Safety and Security reminders and resources for providers
5 February 2026
Health, Safety and Security (HSS) site inductions are available for lawyers at all courts. HSS site inductions contain site specific information and are designed to give an overview of the security settings onsite at that Court, and to provide simple ways to keep yourself safe.
We encourage your attendance every 12 months to allow the Ministry to provide updates on any changes to the site, and to provide information to you about safety best-practices. You should attend an HSS site induction for each court site you regularly visit.
To book onto an induction please talk to your local Court Security Manager. Alternatively, you can email NSOadmin@justice.govt.nz and ask for the email address of your local Court Security Manager.
The NZ Law Society offer free counselling services, and other resources to support practising well. This information is available NZLS | Practising Well(external link)
New legislation goes live 1 February 2026 to improve case management within the District Court at the pre-trial stage
22 January 2026
The Judicature (Timeliness) Legislation Amendment Bill, introduced as part of Budget 2025, has now passed and will come into effect on 1 February 2026. This omnibus Bill contains several items to improve court timeliness by freeing up judicial resources, reducing duplication, and unnecessary churn.
One of the changes is an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (the Act). The new s156A of the Act will allow a District Court Judge to direct that some or all charges against the same defendant be managed together at the pre-trial stage (including the administrative and review stages), in the same District Court location.
An overview of what this change means is below:
The judicial direction will only apply to new proceedings. This is to ensure that it will not disrupt proceedings currently underway.
The judicial direction only applies to pre-trial proceedings. Charges will go back to the original court of filing for trial and/or sentencing, unless the judge directs that the charge is transferred to a different District Court location.
The judiciary will consider requests to combine proceedings on a case-by-case basis.