Accessible and Affordable Justice programme
The Ministry of Justice is leading the Accessible and Affordable Justice programme in response to the outcome of the Triennial Review of the Legal Aid scheme undertaken in 2025.
Legal aid is a cornerstone of the justice system. It ensures people who need legal services and cannot afford to pay for them have access to legal advice and representation.
However, the Triennial Review highlighted that the scheme is under significant strain. Feedback from legal aid lawyers was that they were struggling to service their clients and respond to the administrative demands of the system. The legal profession also noted the scheme was struggling to retain existing lawyers and attract new ones.
The Review also identified that the cost of legal aid is outstripping inflation, having risen from $192.5 million to $304.7 million in the last five years and is projected to increase further. The Government provided an additional $30.4 million for legal aid in Budget 2026, but this funding is time-limited to the 2026/27 financial year.
Analysis undertaken by the Ministry has identified that these increases are not driven by the number of cases, but how they work their way through the courts. Changing practices in the justice system – such as a significant increase in the number of defendants electing trial by jury and increasingly complex cases – as well as inefficiencies, churn and delays are largely responsible for driving up legal aid costs.
These pressures cannot be addressed solely through changes to the legal aid scheme as many of the drivers sit in how cases are progressed and resolved and will take co-ordinated action across in the Justice sector.
In response, the Ministry is leading the Accessible and Affordable Justice programme which was launched by Justice Minister Hon Paul Goldsmith at a Law Association of New Zealand meeting in Auckland on 12 June 2026.
The Ministry will be working directly with the Judiciary, legal profession and sector agencies on a range of high-impact changes that produce timeliness gains and efficiencies that flow into savings in the justice system and the legal aid scheme.
The programme will also consider targeted changes to legal aid settings. These settings influence overall demand on the scheme and the types of cases that progress through the system.
The Ministry intends to provide advice for Ministers to be able to make decisions for Budget 2027.
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