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2 August 2021 - We recently advised you that we are completing work reviewing the current quality assurance framework. We have drafted two policy documents for your feedback.
Firstly, we have completed a review of how we manage complaints under the Complaints Management Policy (Part Three, Quality Assurance). The main proposed changes are implementation of a triage system and creation of a ‘quick action’ process. The triage system will allow complaints to be reviewed and assessed at an early stage. The complaint can progress through a ‘quick action’ process if appropriate, and this will resolve the complaint in a shorter time frame. All other complaints will be classified as ‘serious’ or ‘very serious’ and progress through the normal investigation process.
Secondly, we are completing work reviewing the Audits and Monitoring policy (Part 2, Quality Assurance). We are proposing to improve the current policy to increase the amount of limited audits conducted each year. If the limited audit is passed, each providers likelihood for a full audit will decrease as a result.
I welcome your feedback as it will help ensure the new policy is fit-for-purpose and meets the needs of participants and providers. The consultation page is located at the link below and is open today until 5pm on Friday 20 August 2021.
https://consultations.justice.govt.nz/csi/2da4c092/(external link)
If you have any questions during the consultation, please feel free to contact Robert Ives, Acting Manager, Legal Aid Services at Robert.Ives@justice.govt.nz
29 July 2021 - Legal Aid Services may fund the SmartStart mobile device for Family cases where there are issues regarding alcohol use. Providers may claim this under the prior approval Drug Testing disbursement via an amendment to grant.
The amendment must include:
Alternatively, if the use of the device is directed by a Judge, this can be claimed under the Drug Testing – Judge Directed disbursement. This disbursement is preapproved for Family cases and invoices will need to be submitted with a GST receipt to support the claim. Further information can be found in the Grants Handbook.
29 July 2021 - From 1 August 2021 we will be closing the old email address for duty lawyer correspondence.
Can you please ensure all duty lawyer invoices are sent to paymentsDL@justice.govt.nz. Any other queries relating to the duty lawyer roster should be sent to rostersDL@justice.govt.nz.
29 July 2021 - The Ministry of Justice has published the Communication Assistance Quality Framework to guide consistent use of communication assistance. It describes who can provide the service, how it should be delivered and how we will manage ongoing quality improvement.
Communication assistance is an important tool for courts to ensure that defendants understand court proceedings, and defendants and witnesses (participants) can give evidence to the best of their ability. When directed by a judge, communication specialists are engaged to assess participants’ communication abilities and give the court advice on how to enable effective communication.
Defence counsel and prosecutors must now complete an application form to request communication assistance. We recommend that you make an application when you suspect a participant may struggle to effectively communicate with you or understand and answer questions in court. A ground-rules hearing will be scheduled four weeks ahead of a trial involving communication assistance to clarify roles and avoid misunderstanding at trial.
Legal aid lawyers working on a case where a communication assistant has been appointed may apply for an amendment to grant if significant additional work is required.
Thank you for your ongoing support for consistency across courts and using the communication assistance to enable equal access to justice as envisaged in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Please see our website for more information.
29 July 2021 - After feedback from providers we have reviewed our travel policy for the Courts included in the Location Exceptions list in the Grants Handbook. Providers traveling to these courts from the specified locations will now be paid travel, even if they are on the assignment list for that court, subject to meeting the non-local travel as defined in the disbursement policy.
Non-local travel is defined as travel involving a return trip from the provider’s normal place of work to the travel destination where:
The Grants Handbook has been updated and can be found here.
22 July 2021 - Legal Aid does not provide funding to cover the cost of interlock devices or subscriptions to the OurFamilyWizard app as they do not fall within the definition of ‘legal services’ as provided in the Legal Services Act 2011. Section 4 of the Legal Services Act defines legal services as legal advice and representation. Such legal advice and representation includes assistance with:
If you have a client who requires financial assistance to cover the cost of an interlock device, they may be eligible for the subsidy provided by NZTA. More information regarding this can be found at: https://www.nzta.govt.nz/driver-licences/driving-offences-and-penalties/alcohol-sentencing/alcohol-interlock-programme/alcohol-interlock-subsidy/(external link)
22 July 2021 - An opportunity has been identified to review the current quality assurance framework to ensure services are being delivered consistently and to the standards expected. For this review, the Ministry is looking to complete some work in the auditing and complaints space.
There will be future opportunities for you to provide feedback to ensure that any changes will make improvements to the service for our participants and providers. We thank you in advance for your engagement with us on this and you will hear more information soon.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Robert Ives, Service Delivery Manager at Robert.Ives@justice.govt.nz
22 July 2021 - Previously, the maximum grant for review of sentence cases included the sentencing related fixed fees only. However, these sentencing fixed fees do not provide for the completion of any preliminary tasks. Preliminary work tasks a provider may perform when representing a client on a sentencing review matter include reviewing disclosure, identifying factual and legal issues, undertaking research, reviewing the evidence, and liaising with the prosecutor or court.
The preliminary work fixed fee will be made available on new review of sentence cases and may be claimed without requesting an amendment to grant.
22 July 2021 - Following a review of the fixed fee for re-preparation in Schedules A-C of the fixed fee framework we have decided it will no longer be repeatable. The re-preparation fee will continue to be available where a trial/sentencing hearing is adjourned, but it will not be available for multiple adjournments. Where re-preparation for a hearing occurs more than once an amendment to grant will be required.
8 July 2021 – For Family and Civil legal aid applications, proof of the applicants income needs to be supplied with the application in order for a grant of aid to be considered.
Examples of documents that can be used for this can include:
Screenshots can also be used to provide this proof (such a screenshot of the client’s MSD account etc). However, in order to be accepted as proof the screenshot must include the applicants name.
If the applicant’s name is not included in the screenshot, Legal Aid Services will be unable to accept it as sufficient proof of the applicants income, and will need to ask for further information.
Legal Aid Services are conscious that requesting further information from providers can be burdensome for both legal aid providers and applicants. As such, please ensure that an applicant’s name is embedded in documents or screenshots that are intended to verify the applicants income.
We thank you for your assistance.
1 July 2021 - Thank you to those who have already given us feedback on the communication assistance service – the responses to date have been really useful.
The survey will close on Friday 2 July 2021 and is available here.(external link)
If you have been involved in a case that used communication assistance in the past 12 months, please take 5 minutes to complete the survey.
Thank you for your assistance, it’s much appreciated.
1 July 2021 - In November 2012, two pilot AODT courts were established in in Auckland and Waitākere. These have now been made permanent and a third has been established in Hamilton District Court - Te Whare Whakapiki Wairua ki Kirikiriroa.
The AODT Courts aim to reduce drug use and associated offending through supervising the defendant and providing them with treatment programmes and life skills support. A number of therapeutic or solution-focused courts have been established in New Zealand where the judiciary, iwi, government agencies and communities collaborate to take more holistic approaches to address the underlying causes of offending.
AODT Court operates with a maximum capacity of 50 participants at any one time at each site, with all participants in the programme undergoing Alcohol and Drug (AOD) screening prior to the consideration of eligibility to the Court. An open legal aid grant is required for all participants throughout the duration of their matter.
Hamilton District Court has introduced an AOD screening pathway that is not limited to potential AODT Court participants but will also identify intervention opportunities for anyone struggling with addiction.
Information on the AODT Courts, AOD screening, and referral processes can be found on the Ministry website.
30 June 2021- We are updating our mileage rate to align with the IRD rate. The new rate is $0.79 per kilometre for all vehicles, the current rate is $0.82 per km.
Please disregard the previous What’s New that was published, we apologise for any inconvenience caused.
To allow the new rate to be claimed as soon as possible, it will apply to all legal aid invoices received from 2 July 2021.
If you are using the Word template forms, please update the mileage rate. After the new rate has been recorded once, it will remember that going forward.
29 June 2021– Wellington will return to COVID-19 alert level 1 from midnight, meaning all of New Zealand will be in alert level 1 from tomorrow.
Accordingly, the updates on Legal Aid Services’ response to COVID-19 that were published on the Ministry’s website on 23 June 2021 will no longer apply. This change will be effective from close of business on 29 June 2021.
We thank you for your assistance and cooperation during this time, in continuing to deliver our essential and priority services.
23 June 2021 – Wellington will be in COVID-19 Alert level 2 from 6pm tonight. The rest of Aotearoa New Zealand will remain in Alert Level 1.
Accordingly, the Legal Aid Services updates and policies introduced in response to COVID-19 that have been previously applied to regions in Alert level 2 will be reinstated.
For the Wellington region, the following policies will apply from 6pm tonight for the duration of alert level 2:
We thank you for your assistance and cooperation during this time, in continuing to deliver our essential and priority services.
14 June 2021 - Have you been involved in a case that used communication assistance in the past 12 months?
The Ministry of Justice is running a short survey with the judiciary, defence counsel, and Crown and police prosecutors to get feedback on the communication assistance service. We will use the information from the survey to monitor the quality of the service and inform ongoing improvement.
The survey will take less than 5 minutes to complete and is available here: consultations.justice.govt.nz/osd/8b3e2e9f/(external link)
Thank you in advance - your assistance is much appreciated. The survey will be open until 2 July 2021.
11 June 2021 - As you will be aware, the Ministry of Justice has its Triennial Review of legal aid settings scheduled to take place this year. Given the demands of the current Ministry work programme, the scope and timing of any review will need to be considered alongside other work that the Ministry is doing to deliver on Government priorities. In that context, we are in the process of seeking a decision from the Minister of Justice on what he would like to do regarding this year’s review. We expect a decision from him within in the next month and we will communicate further with you when we know this.
Should you have any questions in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
27 May 2021 - Due to a shortage of available providers, Greymouth District Court has been added to the travel exceptions list for providers from Christchurch for PAL 1 Criminal matters.
This means Christchurch-based providers may be assigned Criminal PAL 1 matters in the Greymouth District Court, and, subject to the disbursements policy, reasonable travel costs will be approved.
The list has been updated in the Grants Handbook.
17/05/2021 - Legal Aid Services is experiencing technical issues with the 0800 2 LEGAL AID number, which has meant that most calls to the line today have been unable to be answered.
A fix has been put in place but although the line is now operating again it is still not operating as it usually is. The message service has been turned off which means that you will not hear the usual greeting or be offered the preferred options when calling 0800 2 LEGAL AID. Instead, the line will ring and will be answered directly by a contact centre staff member.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
6 May 2021 - In February 2021, the Ministry published two online surveys to get feedback from PDLA Providers and Police on the temporary changes that were introduced to the PDLA scheme over the holiday period (18 December 2020 - 11 January 2021).
We would like to take this opportunity to thank those that provided feedback.
Feedback on the trial indicated that the use of a nationwide roster improved current issues with the service, with Police finding it easier to contact PDLA lawyers over the trial period.
The Ministry will begin looking into how the administration of the system can be improved in the long term. The feedback that was provided on the trial will help form part of this review
Options for consideration will include remuneration, rostering approach and the possibility of implementing an 0800 number for the service.
We will update you as work on the review of the service progresses.
16 April 2021 - We have reviewed the way that applications for the Criminal Cases Review Commission are granted and have updated the relevant information as below. These changes will take effect from 19 April 2021.
Changes to the Legal Aid Application questions
On the appeals section of the application form (at questions 29 -30) the application should now record:
Confirmation that the eligible person has fully exercised their rights of appeal against the conviction or sentence will usually satisfy the interests of justice assessment.
Changes to the Maximum Grant
If approved, aid will be granted in full and according to the criminal fixed fee schedules G (appeals to the High Court) or H (appeals to the Court of Appeal), depending on the court to which the Commission may refer the case. For applications that would be referred to the High Court the fee of ‘Making an application’ is $1000. For applications that would be referred to the Court of Appeal the fee is $1000 for trial counsel or $1600 for new counsel.
As is current process, if additional funding is required to prepare the application to the Commission, or to assist the applicant through the Commission’s process if it has made a decision to investigate, the provider must submit a request for an amendment to grant in the prescribed manner.
The wording on the legal aid application forms for criminal, family, civil and Waitangi matters has been updated to reflect the new Privacy Act 2020 coming into effect. The only change to the forms is to the wording change from referencing the Privacy Act 1993 to Privacy Act 2020.
Please make sure to submit all future legal aid applications on the updated forms.
In December 2019, the Minister announced the set-up of a new Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment (AODT) Court in the Waikato. The Waikato AODT Court is planned to be operational in mid-June 2021. The Court builds on the success of the pilot AODT Court in Auckland and Waitākere and aligns to the Chief District Court Judge’s Te Ao Mārama(external link) vision for the District Court.
The Legal Services - Waikato AODT Court [PDF, 298 KB] document provides information on the court, the role of the Defence Lawyer and the approach to support legal services. We encourage Waikato Defence Lawyers and all legal professionals to read the information and get in touch with us at admin.AODTC@justice.govt.nz if you have any questions or need any additional information.
18 March 2021 - Due to a shortage of available providers, Hawera District Court has been added to the travel exceptions list for providers from New Plymouth and Whanganui for PAL 1 Criminal matters.
This means a provider may be assigned from outside the location where the proceeding is to be held and, subject to the disbursements policy, reasonable travel costs will be approved.
The list has been updated in the grants handbook.
12 March 2021– All of New Zealand has now moved to alert level 1. Accordingly, the updates on Legal Aid Services’ response to COVID-19 that have been published on the Ministry’s website since 1 March 2021 will no longer apply. This change will be effective from close of business on 15 March 2021.
This means that unless advised otherwise, legal aid polices on travel disbursements, duty lawyer invoicing, additional fees and signing of legal aid applications for will return to business as usual after 15 March 2021.
We thank you for your assistance and cooperation during this time, in continuing to deliver our essential and priority services.
9 March 2021 – Auckland is now at Alert Level 2. The rest of Aotearoa New Zealand has returned to Alert Level 1.
Accordingly, the Legal Aid Services updates and policies introduced in response to COVID-19 that have been published on the Ministry's website on 1 March 2021 will no longer apply, except for those in the Auckland region. This change is effective from close of business, 9 March 2021.
For the Auckland region, the following policies still apply:
Policies on duty lawyer payments and additional fees due to COVID-19 activities will no longer apply from close of business, 9 March 2021.
We thank you for your assistance and cooperation during this time, in continuing to deliver our essential and priority services.
1/3/2021 - On behalf of Legal Aid Services I would like to update all legal aid providers on our response to last night’s announcement of a return to COVID-19 Alert Level 3 in Auckland and Level 2 nationwide from 6am on 28 February 2021.
Certain changes to Legal Aid policies which previously applied under Alert Level 2 will apply nationwide. This means that:
The Auckland Region is currently at alert level 3. In response, for those areas where Alert Level 3 applies, we are also re-instating relevant Legal Aid policy and process changes:
Where additional services have been provided to, or on behalf of your client, because of the lockdown we will approve up to 2 hours at your legal aid rate for the case without needing an amendment to grant.
Your invoice should briefly describe the additional services and reference the COVID-19 lockdown.
We also understand that due to some hearings taken place via AVL, duty lawyers may be required to print disclosure or opposed bail paperwork. During this period, we will pay duty lawyers disbursements for printing at the standard rate of $0.10 per page.
We will continue to provide updates via ‘What’s New for Legal Aid Lawyers’. Thank you again for your continued cooperation.
Ngā mihi
Brett Dooley, Legal Services Commissioner
25 February 2021 - Once a Co-ordinating Counsel is designated by the Waitangi Tribunal, providers must contact Legal Aid to advise that they have been nominated to provide coordination and provide the legal aid file they choose to bill the Co-ordinating Counsel work to. It must also be a file that is assigned to the Co-ordinating Counsel as Lead Provider.
Co-ordinating Counsel is required to submit:
Please refer to the Granting aid for Waitangi Tribunal matters: Operational policy (page 24-25)
22 February 2021– Following the Prime Minister’s announcement that Auckland will be moving to Alert Level 1 effective 11:59pm on 22 February 2021, the whole of New Zealand will be in Alert Level 1 from tomorrow. Accordingly, the updates on Legal Aid Services’ response to COVID-19 that have been published on the Ministry’s website since 15 February 2021 will no longer apply. This change will be effective from the 24 February 2021 onwards.
This means that unless advised otherwise, legal aid polices on travel disbursements, duty lawyer invoicing, additional fees and signing of legal aid applications for will return to business as usual from 24 February 2021.
We thank you for your assistance and cooperation during this time, in continuing to deliver our essential and priority services.
Legal Aid funding is available for counsel to complete and file a Statement of Problem, as part of the mediation step of ERA proceedings.
If a party refuses to attend mediation, a provider may claim the ‘Completion and filing of Statement of Problem’ fee if a direction is needed from the ERA that the parties should attend mediation.
A provider does not need to have a full grant of legal aid to claim this fee, as the ERA requires a Statement of Problem to be filed to issue a direction for the parties to attend mediation.
15/02/2021 - On behalf of Legal Aid Services I would like to update all legal aid providers on our response to last night’s announcement of a return to COVID-19 Alert Level 3 in Auckland and Level 2 nationwide.
Certain changes to Legal Aid policies which previously applied under Alert Level 2 will apply nationwide. This means that:
Legal Aid will accept any applications that haven’t been signed by your client. Please sign any forms on their behalf and state the reason for not being able to obtain the signature and note this when submitting the form.
Providers who are working from home may claim expenses for travel between home and the Court, a place of detention or a Parole Board hearing venue where:
the distance is greater than 50 kilometres, or
the return travel time is greater than one hour.
This policy will only be available for one claim per day where an in-person appearance is required, and will also apply to Duty Lawyers.
Legal Aid will be processing invoices from providers where preparation for a hearing/trial was undertaken and the event was not able to go ahead due to the changes in COVID-19 Alert Levels. These invoices can be submitted as normal and will be paid if appropriate.
The Auckland Region is currently at alert level 3. In response, for those areas where Alert Level 3 applies, we are also re-instating relevant Legal Aid policy and process changes:
Where additional services have been provided to, or on behalf of your client, because of the lockdown we will approve up to 2 hours at your legal aid rate for the case without needing an amendment to grant.
Your invoice should briefly describe the additional services and reference the COVID-19 lockdown.
We also understand that due to some hearings taken place via AVL, duty lawyers may be required to print disclosure or opposed bail paperwork. During this period, we will pay duty lawyers disbursements for printing at the standard rate of $0.10 per page.
We will continue to provide updates via ‘What’s New for Legal Aid Lawyers’ and thank you for your continued cooperation.
Ngā mihi
Brett Dooley, Legal Services Commissioner
10/02/2021- In 2020 the Ministry of Justice (the Ministry) received feedback indicating there may be opportunity for the Ministry to improve timely access to justice by making it easier for Police to contact Police Detention Legal Assistance (PDLA) lawyers.
In response to the feedback, and to ensure there was timely access to justice throughout the holiday period, the Ministry trialed a change to the PDLA service which ran from 18 December 2020 to 11 January 2021. During this trial, PDLA lawyers were rostered in six-hour shifts on one nationwide roster.
The Ministry is currently running a survey to get feedback on this trial from all PDLA providers. A link to the survey can be found below:
Survey for PDLA lawyers to provide feedback on the holiday period trial roster.(external link)
Legal Aid Services will be reviewing how the administration of the PDLA system can be improved in the longer term this year. Feedback given as part of this survey will help form part of this review.
If you are a PDLA provider, we would encourage you to provide feedback on the trial through the survey. The survey closes at 11:59 pm on 24 February 2020.
04/02/2021 - We have reviewed how legal aid may be granted for proceedings under the Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Act 2015 (the Act). We have decided to make a change that will allow providers approved for PAL 2 criminal cases, as well as providers approved for general civil cases to be assigned some civil proceedings under this Act. The application for legal aid will continue to be made on the civil legal aid application form.
Someone who is subject to a determination under the Act that they meet the criteria of ‘returning prisoner’ may:
A response to an application to impose or vary special release conditions and an application for Commissioner of Police review of a determination are civil proceedings and a civil legal aid application is required. However, lawyers approved for criminal legal aid may also have appropriate experience for these matters. Accordingly, providers who are approved for PAL2 criminal matters can accept cases where an applicant for legal aid wishes to:
A judicial review of the determination that someone is a returning prisoner would require a civil legal aid application and a provider who is approved for civil legal aid.
A breach of a release condition under the Returning Offenders (Management Information) Act 2015 is an offence that is subject, on conviction, to a maximum term of imprisonment of 1 year or a fine not exceeding $2,000. A criminal legal aid application is required and, if eligible, a criminal legal aid lawyer will be assigned on rotation (RO(MI)A(external link))
Applications should be sent to the legal aid office according to where the proceeding will be run. Applications for civil proceedings in the District Court in the Auckland and Northland regions should be sent to AKLCivillegalaid@justice.govt.nz. Otherwise to WGNCivillegalaid@justice.govt.nz.
Applications for criminal proceedings in the District Court in the Auckland and Northland regions should be sent to AKLCriminallegalaid@justice.govt.nz for. Otherwise to WGNCriminallegalaid@justice.govt.nz.
We have updated the grants handbook which you can read here.
04/02/2021 - To provide further clarification, there have been changes to legal aid policy regarding paternity cases.
See the changes below:
The legal aid application must provide evidence sufficient information of a dispute, that if not resolved, will require Court proceedings. The application must enable an assessment to be made of whether there are reasonable grounds for a party to take or defend a paternity proceeding. It is necessary that the information on the application summarises the dispute in a way which enables an assessment to be made of whether there are reasonable grounds for a party to take or defend a paternity proceeding.
Such evidence information is likely to include:
This is an update to the paternity cases information posted on 22/10/2020 - Paternity Cases.
29/01/2021 - The Ministry of Justice has announced that Te Kuiti District Court is to be closed temporarily while repair work is carried out. The court will be closed from Monday 1 February 2021, and reopen on Monday 1 March 2021. While the court is closed, cases will be transferred to Te Awamutu District Court.
Our normal travel policies will continue to apply. Travel costs for legal aid providers who must do additional travel during this period will be assessed on a case by case basis.
When completing criminal legal aid applications, we ask that Duty Lawyers please specify Te Kuiti District Court on relevant application forms rather than the temporary court where the case has been transferred to. This is to enable grants staff to correctly assign providers from the Te Kuiti assignment lists.
Providers on the assignment lists for Te Kuiti District Court will continue to be assigned cases on a rotational basis as per current practice. Please notify us at WGNCriminallegalaid@justice.govt.nz if you are unable to accept a newly assigned case.
We will contact duty lawyers directly about any changes to the duty lawyer service roster.
Thank you for your co-operation.
29/01/2021 – We are updating our mileage rate to align with the IRD rate. The new rate is $0.82 per kilometre for all vehicles.
To allow the new rate to be claimed as soon as possible, it will apply to all legal aid invoices received from 1 February 2021. However, to mitigate unnecessary administrative work, claims received after 1 February 2021 at the old rate can still be processed as claimed.
If you are using the Word template forms, please update the mileage rate. After the new rate has been recorded once, it will remember that going forward.
The Wellington Legal Aid office will be closed on Monday 25 January 2021, for Wellington Anniversary day.
Please send all applications serviced by the Wellington region on this date to WGNCriminallegalaid@justice.govt.nz as usual. Please email all applications as the fax machine will not be accessible during this time.
The Auckland Legal Aid office will process urgent criminal applications for all areas of the country received on this date.
The Contact Centre will remain open from 8am – 5pm. If you have an urgent Legal Aid query on 25 January, you can call 0800 2 LEGAL AID (0800 253 425).
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