This is the What's new for legal aid lawyers archive for news items from 2025.
10 July 2025
As part of the Government’s response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care’s final report, *Whanaketia – Through pain and trauma, from darkness to light*, the Ministry of Justice has implemented the recommendation: an establishment of a publicly available list of specialist lawyers who can provide legal advice to victims seeking puretumu torowhānui (holistic redress).
The Ministry has now published this list on its website(external link). It includes lawyers who have the necessary experience to support victims of historic abuse in care and who are approved to provide legal aid services. This initiative is designed to improve access to justice by making it easier for victims to find qualified legal representation.
Lawyers currently included on the list meet specific criteria, such as:
If you are a legal aid provider with relevant experience and would like to be considered for inclusion, we welcome your interest. Please email the Legal Aid Providers team at legalaidprovider@justice.govt.nz. Once your eligibility is confirmed, your contact details will be added to the Ministry’s website.
This is a significant step in ensuring survivors of abuse in care can access the legal support they need.
3 July 2025
The Ministry has renewed its contracts with the two providers of Communication Assistance(external link) (CA) services – Moretalk and Talking Trouble Aotearoa NZ.
As of 1 July 2025, each Justice Service Area is allocated to one CA provider, who will be solely responsible for responding to all referrals from the courts in that area.
This change impacts existing cases that currently have a communication assistant assigned, and need to be transferred to the other provider as a result of the new regional allocations. Affected participants, or their counsel, will be notified by the previously assigned provider.
The Ministry has worked with both providers to ensure a comprehensive handover is be given to the new provider, in consideration of impact on participants.
There is no change to the CA application process, or how the service is delivered in courts.
3 July 2025
From 1 August, the Case Review Hearing – Best Practice Guidelines and Judge-Alone Trial Protocol will be implemented nationally to all District Courts. Currently, these initiatives only operate in some District Courts.
The judiciary, the Ministry, and justice sector agencies have been working on a range of initiatives to improve timely access to justice across the District Court. The Guideline and Protocol support this.
The Case Review Hearing - Best Practice Guidelines(external link) issued by the CDCJ in May 2025, outlines the judicial approach to ensure that cases are in the best state for trial. It includes establishing a practice where the prosecutor schedules a Case Management Memorandum (CMM) discussion within 10 days after not guilty plea, a requirement for the prosecutor to indicate at the case review hearing how they will prove the case (via the Memorandum of Proof which may be filed together with the CMM), and a checklist to be added to the file to ensure case readiness.
The JAT Protocol (to be issued by the CDCJ) aims to address the barriers and delays preventing JAT matters from being heard on the day, through two parts:
The Police Prosecution Service (PPS) will also be adopting a Case Accountability model, where a single prosecutor maintains case ownership from Not Guilty plea (NG) to, and including, Case Review Hearing. For more information on the PPS rollout, see the Operational changes to Police Prosecution Service.
Case Accountability Factsheet for Defence [PDF, 160 KB]
The Guideline and Protocol will bring changes to all stakeholders involved in the court process. It will ensure the registry are proactively engaging with defence counsel, who will be expected to continue to file CMM’s (the same time Prosecutions will file their MOP) 5 days prior to CRH.
Counsel will also be expected to make themselves available for the registrar-led teleconferences 3 weeks prior to the JAT date as well as the earlier callover time.
Further engagement and additional information will be provided as we approach 1 August. This will include the JAT Protocols, once they have been issued by the Chief District Court Judge.
If you have any question on this protocol, please reach out to – CPIPprogramme@justice.govt.nz
1 July 2025
The Ministry of Justice has updated the Duty Lawyer Operational Policy, with changes to the travel policy for duty lawyers taking effect from 1 July 2025.
Duty lawyers rostered at metropolitan courts will no longer be eligible to claim travel and mileage expenses unless pre-approved due to coverage issues.
This change is part of a broader effort to manage expenditure within the legal aid appropriation and ensure the long-term sustainability of the duty lawyer service.
The following courts are classified as metropolitan under the new policy:
The updated Duty Lawyer Operational Policy (external link)is available here.
If you have any questions or need to update your contact details, please email: duty.lawyer@justice.govt.nz
26 June 2025
A reminder that from 30 June 2025, the Department of Corrections (Corrections) will manage instruction bookings for clients in their custody. This process will apply to any matter proceeding in the District Court and combined High Court/District Courts (combined courts), including young people in Corrections custody.
When you would like to take instructions from your client in custody, you will request a booking by emailing Corrections on operationssupport@corrections.govt.nz with your availability. The local prison will then send connection details (which will be a Corrections Virtual Meeting Room (VMR) link) directly to you. This will connect you to your client in a prison booth.
This new process enables you to take instructions from any location (such as your car, home, or office), rather than being restricted to court instruction suites as the default setting.
If counsel would like to continue to use a court instruction suite, or if the matter is stood down for instructions in court, the court registry will continue to arrange instruction bookings with Corrections, in a court instruction suite.
The new process has the following benefits:
Posters are displayed in each District Court (apart from the Auckland Metropolitan District Courts where this process already operates) and combined courts, to advise you of the change.
26 June 2025
From today, the policy regarding when criminal legal aid applications can be made for parole hearings has been changed.
Legal Aid can now be applied for 12 months prior to a hearing for all Parole hearings before the Extended Board. The hearing requirements for all other Parole matters remain unchanged. The following table provides guidance on the timeframe prior to a parole hearing when a grant of legal aid can me made
|
Type of hearing |
Time until hearing |
|
Any hearing before the Extended Parole Board |
12 months |
|
Section 26 |
No hearing date required |
|
Any other Parole Hearing |
6 months |
Page 33 and 34 of the Grants Handbook has been updated to reflect this policy update.
26 June 2025
We are updating our mileage rate to $1.17 per kilometre for all vehicles. The new mileage rate applies to all legal aid invoices received from 1 July 2025. Invoices received prior to 1 July 2025 with the previous rate will be processed as claimed.
The best way to ensure prompt payment will be to update the mileage rate in the Word template package using the attached instructions. When the rate has been updated, it will then be correct for future invoices as the package will remember that rate.
In response to feedback received regarding the impact of returned invoices for small monetary amounts, we will be taking additional steps to minimise the impact of this mileage rate change.
If an invoice is submitted on or after 1 July 2025 with the previous rate, you will be contacted by phone to confirm:
If we are unable to speak to you, we will send you an email instead to confirm the above information.
We appreciate that returning or amending of invoices can be frustrating. To ensure there are no delays in payment, when invoices are resubmitted, they will be processed as priority.
You can access the attached instructions, using this link: Updating mileage rate [PDF, 221 KB]
26 June 2025
Legal Aid Thresholds
Budget 2022 investment for Legal Aid Services allowed the Ministry to implement a 15% increase in the legal aid eligibility thresholds and 16.5% to the debt repayment thresholds. These were to be followed by an annual increase of 1.9% to both thresholds for three years.
The last of these annual increases will take effect on 1 July 2025.
(Updated LAS – Eligibility Resource [PDF, 178 KB])
Legal Aid Services’ policies, including the grants handbook for providers will be updated prior to these changes coming into effect.
Family Legal Advice Service (FLAS) Thresholds
The FLAS thresholds are also increasing to align with legal aid. These are applicable to all funding assessments completed on or after 1 July 2025.
The FLAS application form in RMS and the operational policy will be updated on 1 July 2025 to reflect these changes.
19 June 2025
Today, 19 June 2025, a survey will be sent by the Law Society, through their newsletter LawPoints, on behalf of the Ministry.
The purpose of this survey is to seek feedback on the current technology used for presenting digital content in court hearings and supporting processes.
The survey is not mandatory, but your contribution would be greatly appreciated and useful to inform whether the current technology is performing to the standard required.
The closing date for completing this survey is Thursday 31 July 2025.
19 June 2025
We are updating our mileage rate to $1.17 per kilometer for all vehicles. The new mileage rate applies to all legal aid invoices received from 1 July 2025. Invoices received prior to 1 July 2025 with the previous rate will be processed as claimed.
The best way to ensure prompt payment will be to update the mileage rate in the Word template package using the attached instructions. When the rate has been updated, it will then be correct for future invoices as the package will remember that rate.
In response to feedback received regarding the impact of returned invoices for small monetary amounts, we will be taking additional steps to minimize the impact of this mileage rate change.
If an invoice is submitted on or after 1 July 2025 with the previous rate, you will be contacted by phone to confirm:
If we are unable to speak to you, we will send you an email instead to confirm the above information.
We appreciate that returning or amending of invoices can be frustrating. To ensure there are no delays in payment, when invoices are resubmitted, they will be processed as priority.
You can access the attached instructions, using this link: Updating mileage rate(external link)
19 June 2025
We have a quick reference guide available to support providers when they are preparing and submitting an invoice. You can access this guide using the following link: Invoicing Quick Reference Guide [PDF, 130 KB](external link)
If you are experiencing delays of more than 15 working days or have any other concerns regarding invoices, please contact Kamini McCarthy (Kamini.McCarthy@justice.govt.nz) or Greg Ishikawa-Pearson (Greg.Ishikawa-Pearson@justice.govt.nz).
17 June 2025
From 17 June 2025, the law has changed to reactivate warnings that were given under the old three strikes law between 1 June 2010 and 16 August 2022.
The reinstated three-strikes laws are intended to deter repeat offenders with the threat of progressively longer mandatory terms of imprisonment.
In general, offenders who are convicted of a serious violent or sexual offence committed on or after 17 June 2025 will be warned of the consequences of re-offending at their first strike and will not be eligible for parole at their second strike. For a third strike, offenders will have to serve the maximum penalty without parole.
Offenders will be subject to the regime if they commit a qualifying offence and receive a sentence above the qualifying sentence threshold at each stage. The regime:
Strike warnings issued under the previous regime will carry over into the new regime from 17 June 2025, provided they meet the updated sentence threshold, ensuring consistent treatment of serious offences.
If an individual is currently appearing before the court, their legal council should request from the prosecutor an updated copy of their client’s Criminal and Traffic History Report to see if their client has any reactivated warnings.
12 June 2025
The Ministry of Justice is seeking feedback from the legal community on New Zealand’s legal aid system in the triennial review of legal aid.
The Ministry has released a discussion document, and submissions can be made from 11 June to 23 July through the Ministry’s Citizen Space public consultation hub at: Triennial Review of Legal Aid - Public consultation(external link)
The Ministry will also be undertaking targeted engagement with a range of legal professional groups.
12 June 2025
In collaboration with the NZ Police and feedback from some lawyers, we are introducing some improvements to ensure the PDLA Service runs seamlessly for everyone involved.
These changes include:
. If you have any feedback about the PDLA Service or roster please sent it to pdla@justice.govt.nz
12 June 2025
There are a growing number of people with suspected or diagnosed intellectual disability (ID) being inappropriately remanded in Corrections | Ara Poutama Aotearoa’s custody. Over the past 18 months, key justice, disability, and health agencies have identified systemic issues and opportunities to simplify and improve system responses. In December 2023, a cross-agency Chief Executive group agreed to support high-impact opportunities to address these concerns. One of those opportunities is to conduct nation-wide training on how the CP(MIP) Act works in practice with the ID(CCR) Act 2003.
There will be 90-minute in-person workshops on the following dates:
Sessions will be presented by Rachel Daysh, Chief Adviser, Disability Support Services, Ministry of Social Development, Dr John Crawshaw, Director of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Ministry of Health, Dr Duncan Thomson, National Advisor IDCCR Act, Ministry of Social Development and Steve O’Connor, Partner, Luke Cunningham Clere.
For more information, please refer to the attached IDCCR Training Summary [DOCX, 34 KB]
To attend, please email kim.partridge@corrections.govt.nz indicating which session you would like to attend. Kim will send calendar invites to attendees and a list of names to each venue. People who are not registered may not be able to attend on the day.
12 June 2025
Reminder: Travel to places of detention is pre-approved
All local and non-local travel to a place of detention (this includes prisons, mental health institutions and refugee detention centres) to take or update instructions is pre-approved.
No amendment to grant is required for this travel as outlined in the ‘Necessary travel’ section on page 125 of the Grants Handbook.
5 June 2025
To ensure a resubmitted invoice is correctly prioritised, please reply directly to the original email from Legal Aid and attach your amended invoice. Following this process ensures it is processed with priority and does not go back to the end of the queue
A reminder that we have a guide to assist lawyers when invoicing Legal Aid
Invoicing Quick Reference Guide [PDF, 123 KB]
If you have any questions regarding this process, please email Greg.Ishikawa-Pearson@justice.govt.nz or Kamini.McCarthy@justice.govt.nz.
5 June 2025
From 30 June 2025, lawyers will contact the Department of Corrections directly for an Audio-Visual Link (AVL) instruction booking for any clients in Corrections custody, rather than go through the High Court or District Court (including the Youth Court). This process has operated in the Auckland Metropolitan District Courts up until now.
When you need to take instructions from your client, you will request a booking by emailing Corrections on operationssupport@corrections.govt.nz with your availability. The local prison will then send you an email with the connection details (a Virtual Meeting Room (VMR) link), allowing you to take instructions from anywhere, without being limited to local Court instruction suite availability.
Posters will be displayed in each High Court and District Court (apart from the Auckland Metropolitan District Courts where this process already operates) to advise you on the upcoming change.
5 June 2025
We understand that there are several reasons why you may be unable to accept assignments. If you are unavailable, please remember to notify us by emailing legalaidprovider@justice.govt.nz.
This will allow us to ensure you are not disturbed unnecessarily while you are unavailable and means we can assign cases as quickly as possible to available providers.
Thank you for your assistance.
29 May 2025
For any invoice submitted to Legal Aid that claims a third party disbursement (eg specialist report), a supporting GST receipt/invoice from that third party must also be submitted.
If a supporting invoice is not submitted, we will be unable to approve the invoice for payment.
If you have any questions regarding this process, please email lsc@justice.govt.nz.
29 May 2025
Starting from 1 July 2025, the Family Disputes Resolution (FDR) programme will be free for anyone who requires it. Eligible individuals can get up to 12 hours of mediation through Fair Way Resolution Limited, at no cost. As Fair Way Resolution Limited will be the only contracted supplier from 1 July 2025, participants who are directed for court referred FDR may wish to commence with them which will be at the existing fees prior to 1 July.
9 May 2025
From 12 May, correspondence sent by Legal Aid Services to providers will include the client’s email address. This will appear in the “client details” section at the top of the letter.
If no email has been provided, the client email address will appear blank. Obtaining email addresses for clients assists both Legal Aid and the assigned lawyer to provide timely updates. It would be helpful if you could encourage clients to include their email address on any legal aid application or contact us to add their email address if they have not already provided it.
Thank you to those of you that made this improvement suggestion.
24 April 2025
From Thursday 24 April 2025, Legal Aid applications for Substance Addiction Act proceedings in the Family Court no longer require a completed Legal Aid Application form to be submitted. Instead, you can send an email to Legal Aid Services that provides the following information:
Email subject: Substance Addiction Act Application
Please note that any applications submitted using the Legal Aid Application form will still continue to be accepted.
Please see the attached Template for providers to complete for applying for a Substance Addiction [DOCX, 40 KB] that you can use when applying for Legal Aid for Mental Health Proceedings.
Thank you to the NZLS Family Law Section for making this suggestion and providing feedback on this update.
10 April 2025
The Ministry of Justice has created a new resource to assist legal aid providers with refugee proceedings.
The resource can be found here - Legal aid practice standards
If you have any questions, please contact the Legal Aid Providers Team at legalaidprovider@justice.govt.nz.
27/03/25
Court of Appeal judgment on the Legal Services Commissioner v Fawcett case
Jurisdiction: All
On 21 March 2025, the Court of Appeal released its decision in the Legal Services Commissioner (LSC) v Fawcett case.
The LSC is now taking time to consider the judgment in full, seek advice, and determine next steps. More information will be communicated in due course.
If you have any questions in the meantime, please email lsc@justice.govt.nz
13/03/25
Following the KPMG’s independent review of the duty lawyer service in 2024, we are making some changes to improve the way we complete duty lawyer rosters by:
Duty Lawyer Rostering Changes – Transition plan
To move all courts onto a three month roster we have created a transition plan, some courts have entered into the new rostering cycle.
This new schedule is designed to ensure a nationally consistent rostering approach for preparation and publishing of the rosters. Our aim is to ensure the transition is smooth and to minimise any disruption. We will be communicating any schedule alterations to courts and duty lawyers throughout this process, with the goal of achieving smooth nationwide implementation.
The transition plan can be found on our website(external link), it contains a projection of the dates for changes to the duty lawyer rosters.
New Survey Platform
A new web-based form on CitizenSpace will be used to request information from duty lawyers about their availability for upcoming rosters.
When it is time for duty lawyers to submit their availability, we will send an email with a link to the survey from duty.lawyer@justice.govt.nz. Duty lawyers will access the survey and enter their information and the dates they are not available. We will use this information when creating the rosters.
This change will improve the accuracy of data and streamline the rostering process, ensuring that availability is recorded electronically and in one place rather than by individual emails.
Contact Information for Duty Lawyers
We will also be asking all Duty Lawyers to complete an update of their phone number, and office physical and postal address. A link to an online form will soon be sent to duty lawyers to enter this information.
If there are any questions or concerns around the upcoming changes, please email duty.lawyer@justice.govt.nz
6/3/25
There was an issue with Westpac Corporate Online last night which affected some provider payments. The issue has been resolved and payments will be made today.
If you received a remittance advice and have not received payment by COB today (Thursday 6 March) please contact either Greg Ishikawa-Pearson Greg.Ishikawa-Pearson@justice.govt.nz or Kamini McCarthy Kamini.McCarthy@justice.govt.nz.
6/03/25
The Ministry has increased the timeframe for providers returning to legal aid services after a period of absence from one to three years effective immediately.
If a Provider has been absent for three years or less, they may now resume providing legal aid services without submitting a new application. The only requirement is that a Change of details form(external link) is submitted. Further information can be found in the Provider Manual(external link) and Applying to be a legal aid lawyer guide(external link) .
Please note that this process will not apply if there has been a quality or service contract cancellation.
If you have any questions, please contact legalaidprovider@justice.govt.nz.
28/02/25
The Minister of Justice, Hon Paul Goldsmith, has announced that the triennial review of legal aid setting will commence this year. The Minister’s media release is available on the Beehive website(external link).
The review will be carried out by the Ministry of Justice, who will consult publicly as part of the review.
The scope of the review will be focused on ensuring the legal aid scheme is efficient, is of good quality, and promotes access to justice in a way that is sustainable and cost-effective.
Further information on the review and how to participate will be available in due course.
27/02/25
Following the successful rollout of text message reminders to PDLA lawyers in the Auckland area, the Ministry of Justice will be sending daily text message reminders to PDLA lawyers on rosters in Northland, Hamilton, and Christchurch from 03 March 2025, as a reminder of upcoming shifts.
The Ministry has received positive feedback for this initiative in Auckland and we look forward to supporting the PDLA rosters with this service.
The text messages will be templated as follows:
"Hi [First Name], please note that you are rostered on for PDLA tomorrow in [Location]. Please do not reply to this text message. Regards Ministry of Justice.”
Saturday and Sunday reminders will both be sent on Friday, and Monday’s will be sent on Sunday.
The PDLA rosters will continue to be available on our website at Police Detention Legal Assistance Roster | New Zealand Ministry of Justice(external link).
Further information about PDLA rosters can be found on our website at Police Detention Legal Assistance | New Zealand Ministry of Justice(external link)
27/02/25
Overview
A new operational process will begin on 3 March 2025 to improve information available to the criminal court about the existence of dependent children. Information will be more consistently provided to the District Court about the existence of dependent children when a primary caregiver is potentially facing a custodial remand or sentence.
As part of the new process, approved by Heads of Bench, several court forms have been updated to enable information about the existence of dependent children to be captured and shared with the court. These changes sit alongside existing processes that can also support identifying dependent children, such as oral submissions.
Making this information known to the Court will:
Impact on practice
All counsel should consider making inquiries of their client, to understand whether they are the sole or primary caregiver of a dependent child or vulnerable adult. With consent from their client, Counsel has opportunity to bring this information to the attention of the court through written or oral submission and should inform the court of the existence of dependent children where the defendant is potentially facing a custodial remand or sentence.
Counsel can expect judges to ask questions about parental responsibilities at an early stage, including at the time of bail and when setting bail conditions.
Both the Duty Solicitor Instruction sheet and the PDS Client Information Sheet have been amended to prompt and record this information.
Making Children Visible [PDF, 983 KB]
20/02/25
Appendix 1 (Instructions on bail matters for duty lawyers in the District Court) of the CPIP Duty Lawyer Operational Policy has been updated to clarify:
You can find the latest version of the policy here: Criminal Process Improvement Programme (CPIP) | New Zealand Ministry of Justice(external link)
20/02/25
Last week, Legal Aid Services launched a survey for providers regarding legal aid forms. Thank you to those who have already completed this.
If you have not yet completed the survey and would like to offer your feedback, the survey will be open until 23 February 2025.
Legal aid forms - Ministry of Justice - Citizen Space(external link)
12/02/2025
In response to feedback received at the workshops last year, Legal Aid Services are currently looking into how we can improve timeliness and efficiency when it comes to processing invoices and applications.
As part of this work, we will be launching a survey on how the forms are completed now, current challenges and how these forms could function in future to provide a better service.
We encourage all legal aid providers to complete the survey. The survey will be published on Citizen Space on 12 February 2025 and will be open until 23 February 2025.
https://consultations.justice.govt.nz/osd/022914f2/(external link)
30/01/2025
The Form 50 (Expert Request Form) is no longer required following a policy update that became effective in April 2019.
We have continued to receive Form 50’s since this change, however this information should now be provided as part of the criminal ATG Form 51.
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