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Introduction to part 3

CHAPTERS 6 AND 7 look in detail at two areas of the legal services

landscape which were emphasised by women in their submissions: community-based legal services and civil legal aid. From this examination, a range of systemic defects which impede New Zealand women’s access to the justice system is identified.

In chapter 6, seven defects are identified in the operation of the legislative scheme which regulates the provision of legal services outside the private lawyers’ market. These are:

• the continuing fragmentation and lack of co-ordination in legal services provision;

• the lack of long-term security in funding for community based legal services;

• inadequate resourcing of the Legal Services Board and district legal services committees;

• inadequate systems to identify gaps in the legal services available to communities of interest;

• a lack of flexibility in the power of the board and district committees to respond to unmet legal needs;

• inadequate provision for ongoing monitoring of legal services needs in communities; and

• a conflict in legislative provisions which unnecessarily inhibits the ability of community law centres to respond to unmet legal needs.

In chapter 7, a further 10 defects are identified in the operation of the legislative scheme which regulates the grant of civil legal aid to low-income New Zealanders. These are:

• the erosion of eligibility for civil legal aid;

• in light of that erosion, the difficulties posed for aid recipients by the recovery mechanisms of the scheme;

• inadequate public awareness of the civil legal aid scheme;

• New Zealanders’ uneven access to legal aid lawyers;

• the complexity of the application process;

• some lawyers’ failure to advise on eligibility for legal aid;

• the unavailability of legal aid for advice unconnected with litigation;

• inequity in the operation of the capital test;

• the limited control of the quality of legal aid lawyers’ services; and

• the scope for inconsistent administration of the civil legal aid scheme.

It is concluded that both legislative and administrative reforms are needed to remedy these defects. Using the principles and process identified in chapter 1 as being essential to guide all efforts to promote the just treatment of women by the justice system, four key remedial strategies are identified:

• co-ordination of the legal information services available outside the private lawyers’ market and the services funded by the civil legal aid scheme, with an emphasis on a user-focused approach to service needs;

• changes which ensure equitable outcomes for women and men in the operation and application of the civil legal aid scheme, and in the provision of legal services outside the private lawyers’ market;

• the development of new and diverse measures to meet the diverse needs of New Zealand women for legal services; and

• transparency both in the processes of the Legal Services Board and district legal services committees and in the means by which legal aid lawyers are accountable for the standard and quality of their services.

A series of specific recommendations is made in each chapter to remedy the defects identified. Inevitably, their implementation depends on adequate and secure funding of community-based legal services and of the civil legal aid scheme.