The Ministry of Justice has published information on legal aid payments to firms in the 2017/18 financial year.
Acting Legal Services Commissioner Sarah Turner says the data shows payments to 1,205 firms whose legal aid lawyers undertook work on a range of cases in the criminal, civil and family courts and a number of specialist courts and tribunals. The Ministry’s Annual Report shows $160 million was spent on legal aid, an increase of $16 million on the year before.
“Legal aid ensures people who cannot pay for a lawyer are provided with legal representation in court. We proactively publish this information once a year to ensure transparency and accountability of the spending of what is a significant amount of public money.”
There are about 1900 lawyers approved to provide legal aid services working for firms or for themselves, as a firm in their own right.
Information on payments are available here: https://www.justice.govt.nz/about/lawyers-and-service-providers/legal-aid-lawyers/legal-aid-payments-to-firms/