Criminal Legal Services expansion
Public Defence Service
In Budget 2009, the Government provided funding to expand the Public Defence Service across the Auckland region. Later that year, in December 2009, the Government announced the extension of the Public Defence Service to Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton by the middle of 2011. The expansion of the Public Defence Service will help to improve quality and efficiency in the legal aid system by providing training and supervision for junior lawyers, encouraging competition, and offering a benchmark for the cost of the service.
Duty Solicitor Service
The changes to the Duty solicitor service are designed to ensure that defendants receive consistent high quality service that is a major contributor to a more efficient summary court process. The key features of the reformed duty lawyer service are:
- PDS-appointed duty lawyer supervisors who have clear responsibilities for overseeing the operation of the service
- increased PDS participation on the roster
- selection criteria used to determine duty lawyer suitability for initial appointment to the new roster, and for ongoing roster entry
- roster composition that takes into account duty lawyers’ experience, competence, skills and team fit
- a consistent pattern of rostering, ie generally weekly or fortnightly on the same day of the week
- removal of the requirement to participate in the duty solicitor scheme in order to be eligible for categories 1 and 2 legal aid assignments
- LSA staff at the court to assist defendants with legal aid application forms
- duty lawyer instructions that express clear expectations of duty lawyers.
Information on the Public Defence Service and duty lawyer reforms
Please see the resources below for more information on the Public Defence Service expansion and the duty lawyer reforms.
Establishing a PDS at the Papakura and Pukekohe District Courts and introducing duty lawyer reforms (pdf 86kb)
Establishing a PDS at the North Shore District Court (pdf 103kb)
Establishing a PDS at the Waitakere District Court (pdf 154kb)
Reform of the duty lawyer service at the Manukau District Court (pdf 85kb)
For media queries, please contact Bronwyn Bannister DDI (04) 495 5967, bronwyn.bannister@lsa.govt.nz
Click here for further information on the PDS
Click here for further information about the duty solicitor reforms
