Legal Services Agency

The administration of legal aid for family matters and disbursements (for all types of legal aid) has been simplified from 28 October 2008.

These changes arise out of initiatives the Agency has been working on with lawyers and other providers over the last two years to:

• test a streamlined administration model of family legal aid (previously called the Global Grant tests);
• revise the steps for family law proceedings; and
• update the standard disbursements for all law types

Consultation on the changes has been specifically undertaken with:

• The Family Law Section of the NZLS
• A group of lawyers who provided advice on and participated in the Global Granting tests
• An advisory group of family lawyers

The initiatives specifically address the compliance cost of the legal aid scheme for lawyers, by reducing the number of amendments, and the documentation requirements, for ‘standard’ grants, ie those covering up to 80% of matters. In addition, the initiatives will help streamline the claims for payment of disbursement and travel costs by lawyers.

Details of Changes for Family Legal Aid Grants:

• The steps and guideline hours have been revised for Domestic Violence, Care and Contact, Children and Young Persons, Relationship Property and Guardianship Proceedings.
• The proceedings steps have been rewritten to give clearer guidance on the activities that will be reimbursed, the guideline hours for each activity, the tasks covered by the guideline hours, and the documentation that the Agency requires to support claims.
• Once a grant has been approved for a particular proceeding there is no longer any need to seek prior approval (by amendment) for work that is within the guideline hours of the revised proceeding steps. This will apply to all family grants (other than mental health) made from 1 March 2007.
• The maximum grant on files approved on or after 1 March 2007 will no longer be referred to in dollar terms and/or by a breakdown of hours. The Agency letters advising the grant will refer collectively to the activities within the steps that are to be performed in the matter.
• The initial evidence of proceedings, and information provided on interim and final invoices for ‘standard’ family grants will be the only documentation required. The information and documentation required to support financial eligibility is unchanged.
• The balancing of unders and overs of hours across completed activities within steps will be allowed when submitting claims. An ‘under’ is when less time than the guideline hours is required to complete an activity - an ‘over’ is when the completion of an activity takes more time than the guideline hours. The carry forward and/or back of unused hours between steps will remain the same as at present and will not be allowed without a request for an amendment.
• Claims for legal aid work performed are expected to be based upon the ‘actual and reasonable’ use of time by lawyers. Accordingly, the deduction for ‘efficiencies’ for multiple proceedings, prescribed in the current steps, has been removed.
• Agency Forms 6 (Application), 9 (Amendment) and 10 (Tax Invoice) have been amended to reflect the new changes. The updated forms will be available from 28 October 2008 from Baseline and on the Agency’s website. The existing forms will continue to be accepted by the Agency until 31 January 2009.

Details of Changes for Payment of Disbursements for all grants of legal aid:

• The Agency will not require prior approval for general office disbursements up to $100 for each proceeding (previously $50).
• The Agency has extended general office disbursements to include postage and courier fees.
• Special disbursements will not require prior approval where they are expected to be incurred as an integral part of the activity to which they relate, such as DNA tests in Paternity matters, serving of documents.
• Travel costs will continue to be reimbursed for travel that is not ‘local’ – where ‘local’ is the city or town where the lawyer’s normal place of work and the court is located. As further guidance for staff and lawyers, distances less than 25 kilometres and/or travel time less than 30 minutes will normally be considered ‘local’ and ineligible for reimbursement.
• Travel that is unavoidable, such as to places of ‘detention’ or when there is a change in court location, will no longer require prior approval.

New Grants Assurance (Family) Programme

The Agency is planning to implement a new grants programme for ‘standard’ family legal aid matters covered by the simplification initiatives described above. The programme will involve a test of a sample of files held by a sample of providers covering the proceedings which are ‘standard’ grants, ie those grants which are performed within the guideline hours established for the activities within the steps and do not require prior approval. The programme will seek to confirm that:

• The work invoiced by the lawyer within the steps was actually and reasonably completed; and
• The lawyer advised the Agency of any changes to the merits of the cases, the financial eligibility of the legally aided person or other conditions of the grant.

The programme is expected to be implemented in early 2009 and will initially operate for a year to allow an assessment of progress with the initiatives. Further information about this programme will be available to lawyers and other providers before implementation.

Important Information

• For more complex grants, which are expected to exceed the guideline hours in the revised steps, amendments to the grant and relevant documentation will need to be submitted, in accordance with current processes.
• Training will be made available to legal aid lawyers in a number of areas by the Agency’s regional offices.
• If you have any questions about the changes to family legal aid or the disbursement policy and procedures please contact your nearest Legal Aid Office for assistance.
• A Provider Information Pack for Family Law Proceedings, which contains the legal aid rates and fees, the revised steps and disbursement policy , and a summary of the key granting policies affected by the above changes, is available here (pdf 229kb).