541 In 1993, the women`s Suffrage Centennial Forum report on legal aid again contained little information. (Do women get the help they need from the legal aid system? 14, 18) In the consultation sessions held during this study, women freely admitted that their level of knowledge of the system is not high. For some groups, including Maori women, the need for information was particularly evident. 472 In addition to those cost drivers, all the factors determining the costs of civil proceedings are reflected in the costs of legal aid. Consequently, any financial savings that may be achieved, for example by changing court proceedings, managing cases or exercising lawyers` fees, will in the meantime be borne as costs to the State and clients, including clients receiving legal assistance who are required to contribute financially to the costs of their dispute. 479 Civil legal aid is available to applicants whose “disposable income” is less than $2,000 or more, which the district subcommittee may approve in special circumstances. (§ 28 para. 1; Regulation 35, Legal Services Regulations, 1991) 481 An “initial contribution” of $50 must be attached to all applications for civil legal aid, unless the district subcommittee requests and grants an exemption on the basis that: 586 As long as civil legal aid continues to be provided through the judicial model of the Legal Services Act, legislative changes also seem necessary to implement most of the measures that could be designed to better ensure the administration of civil justice. Beneficiaries of legal aid and taxable persons on the quality of the services provided. For example, the introduction of a list system for civil legal aid lawyers, comparable to what the Act respecting legal services allows for criminal lawyers, would require explicit legal authorization.
This authority would also be necessary to support all efforts to require civil legal aid lawyers to undergo some training before being allowed to perform certain types of work for legally assisted clients. • the unavailability of legal aid for non-litigation advice; 531 Two other options for reforming the recovery mechanisms of the legal aid scheme are as follows: 509 The fact that 26 113 applications for legal aid in civil matters were granted in 1997/98 (see Chapter 5, Table 2, paragraph 390) and in 2020 gives rise to an estimate that less than 8% of beneficiaries had collected taxes on their property that year; to ensure the repayment of part of the aid. The Chamber`s investigations into the 1994/95 sample of cases showed that 16 per cent of these aid recipients had been charged. (AG Nielsen MRL, 68) More than 20,000 people have been refused legal aid in the past 12 months, according to a Law Society survey. 548 As is apparent from the summary at the beginning of that chapter, the method of calculating entitlement to legal aid in civil matters is relatively complex. This not only makes it administratively difficult to regularly review the criteria, but also makes the application process more difficult. Among all those consulted, it was often said that the complexity of this process (which involves confirming benefits, salaries and savings, as well as the value of a home owned) places significant barriers in the way of potential legal aid applicants. • prevent some low-income New Zealanders from receiving legal aid even if they are entitled to it; Legal aid may be available for civil disputes or problems that could be brought before a court or tribunal. These include debt collection, breach of contract, defamation and insolvency proceedings. “It`s a common problem that clients don`t get [legal aid] – a kind of `black hole`, especially in difficult cases that can be expensive and earn too much to qualify, but not enough to pay the fees. – Submission 68 (Lawyer) 518 The combined effects of the erosion of the right to legal aid in civil matters for many years, combined with the lack of alternatives to settle many disputes without legal representation diminish, to an unprincipled and unfair extent, the ability of ordinary New Zealanders to have access to justice. The income level of the majority of New Zealanders is so low relative to the cost of legal services that a genuine attempt to close the gap would not only allow those whose income exceeds income support to receive the benefits of the system, but also those whose income exceeds income support.
“Although the comment [on the rules of ethics] indicates that it is the duty of the practitioner to make the client aware of eligibility for legal aid, in my experience this is not always done. There is not enough information about legal aid and clients are in the hands of their lawyers, who sometimes consider legal aid a. – Brief 323 (Counsel) 567 With two exceptions, the capital audit, which is part of the financial formula for the granting of legal aid in civil matters, is a type rather than a value. The exceptions are as follows: 574 The issues raised here warrant an investigation by the Commission des services juridiques. Inequalities of the type described could only be overcome by a legal change in the criterion of financial eligibility for legal aid. For example, they would disappear if a purely income-based criterion were introduced (in line with other state aid such as the Community Service Card programme). If a capital criterion continues to be part of the rights check, one way to overcome inequalities would be to increase the available capital limit by $2,000, at least for claimants who have little property other than savings. In addition, if the legal aid scheme were also to exempt from liability all property held by such a beneficiary up to a certain value (as stated above, see paragraphs 535 to 539), those persons would also benefit from a `basic` guarantee that their ability to provide accommodation to their relatives would not be compromised by that amount. 565 As is apparent from Chapters 5 and 6, the 1991 Law on Legal Services facilitates legal guidance by Centres governed by Community law for those with `insufficient resources`, an expression capable of covering the range of obstacles liable to prevent persons from having recourse to private lawyers. In this regard, the legislation departed from the approach favoured by the Access to Justice Unit, which in 1983 found a “strong case” for legal aid for advice.
It recommended that the level of expected expenditure be reviewed by the proposed Legal Services Council and that, in the meantime and as a matter of urgency, the LawHelp programme be made more widely public and that existing Community law centres receive financial injection and continued commitment. (Final Report, 1983, 19) • the Commission des services juridiques is developing a more comprehensive public education program on legal aid; 554 women complained that their lawyers had not advised them on their right to legal aid in civil matters. A related complaint was that some lawyers, without adequately explaining the benefits of receiving legal aid, had offered to work for clients at legal aid rates (paid directly by women) rather than apply for legal aid on their behalf. “Lawyers tend to help applicants decide if they should apply for legal aid and if they are eligible. Lawyers are often not sufficiently informed about the requirements. There does not appear to be any real indication of specific circumstances that allow legal aid to be granted to persons who do not comply with the financial eligibility check. – Submission 323 (Lawyer) • which leads to different conditions under which legal aid is granted in different parts of New Zealand.