Collins welcomes progress of legal aid bill

Justice Minister Judith Collins says the Legal Assistance (Sustainability) Amendment Bill, which passed its second reading in Parliament today, is another step towards a fairer and more sustainable legal aid system.

“This Bill reinforces access to justice. It strikes the best balance between ensuring the financial viability of the legal aid system, and ensuring the most vulnerable people in society are protected.

“The types of cases people can get legal aid for are not changing, and neither are income and asset test thresholds. The current financial means test for criminal legal aid is also unchanged,” Ms Collins says.

Original proposals in the Bill – as introduced to Parliament in August 2011 – included limiting eligibility for legal aid, the reintroduction of user charges for some family and civil legal aid cases, and charging immediate interest on legal aid debts.

In October 2012, the Government referred a supplementary order paper (SOP) on the Legal Assistance (Sustainability) Amendment Bill to the Justice and Electoral Select Committee for further consideration.

The SOP proposed changes to the Bill to align it with the benefits of the Family Court reforms, and provide a better balance between the needs of legally aided people and ensuring access to justice services.

Ms Collins says the select committee accepted the changes which will help ensure a fair, effective and sustainable legal aid system.

The main changes included the SOP and accepted by the select committee are:

• reducing the proposed user charge for civil and family cases from $100 to $50. 
• changing the point at which legal aid debts will begin accruing interest. Interest will now be imposed six months after the total debt is finalised, rather than immediately. 
• removing the proposal to tighten the financial means test for less serious criminal cases, such as theft, assault or careless driving.
• keeping the existing approval frameworks for lawyers who can provide lawyer for the child and youth advocate services, rather than creating new criteria and standards.
• retaining the list of types of proceedings eligible for legal aid in the Legal Services Act 2011. This means changes to the list must be made by Parliament, rather than the Executive. 
• allowing applications for civil legal aid to be refused if the applicant is in arrears for repayments on previous legal aid grants, unless the interests of justice require otherwise.

Additional proposals added to the Bill by the select committee are:

• allowing legal aid providers to apply for review or reconsideration of decisions to decline payment of invoices which were claimed outside the approved timeframe.
• allowing overdue repayments on legal aid debt to be recovered through notices deducting payments from wages, benefits or bank accounts.   

“I’d like to thank all those who submitted on the Bill and the Justice and Electoral Committee for its hard work.

“We now have a Bill that makes the savings needed to ensure a sustainable legal aid system, while achieving the right balance for vulnerable people who need access to legal assistance,” Ms Collins says.

The Legal Assistance (Sustainability) Amendment Bill will pass through the remaining Parliamentary stages over the coming weeks.