The Ministry of Justice has reminded duty lawyers of changes to the non-local travel policy which were made in July 2018.

It says the policy was amended to allow non-local travel (defined as a return trip of over 50 km or more than one hour) to be claimed where the duty lawyer is on the duty lawyer roster for a court.

"We would like to take the opportunity to remind lawyer that non-local travel for the duty lawyer service is defined as travel involving a return trip from the provider's normal place of work to the travel destination where the return distance is greater than 50 km or the return travel time is greater than one hour."

The ministry says anyone who thinks they may not have claimed for travel where the policy applies can contact them at dutylawyer@justice.govt.nz.

Printing error

The ministry has advised that the new Amendment to Grant Form 51 indicates disbursements for printing disclosure in criminal cases are pre-approved up to a maximum of $500 (or 500 pages at $0.10 per page).

However, that should read 5,000 pages at $0.10 per page.

The ministry says it is currently reviewing the invoice forms and will correct the amendment to grant form when improvements to the invoice forms are released.