Information released by Justice Minister Andrew Little shows that 1.9% of legal aid recipients in the year to 11 March 2019 were aided for civil matters. Legal aid lawyers also had an average of 39.9 open legal aid cases each month.
Mr Little has provided information on legal aid in response to a series of written parliamentary questions from National MP Mark Mitchell.
In the year to 11 March 2019 there were 74,464 recipients of legal aid, of whom three-quarters received legal aid for criminal proceedings.
Recipients of legal aid services by area of law, year to 11 March 2019
| Law type | Recipients | % Total |
| Civil | 1,410 | 1.9% |
| Criminal | 56,237 | 75.5% |
| Family | 16,674 | 22.4% |
| Waitangi | 143 | 0.2% |
| Total | 74,464 |
Regions
The highest proportion of recipients were in the Auckland area, although the location of one-eighth was unknown
Recipients of legal aid services by region, year to 11 March 2019
| Region | Recipients | % Total |
| Auckland | 17,720 | 23.8% |
| Bay of Plenty | 7,454 | 10.0% |
| Canterbury | 6,763 | 9.1% |
| Gisborne | 1,731 | 2.3% |
| Hawke's Bay | 3,681 | 4.9% |
| Manawatu-Whanganui | 3,680 | 4.9% |
| Marlborough | 555 | 0.7% |
| Nelson | 1,392 | 1.9% |
| Northland | 3,379 | 4.5% |
| Otago | 2,185 | 2.9% |
| Southland | 1,203 | 1.6% |
| Taranaki | 1,571 | 2.1% |
| Waikato | 6,574 | 8.8% |
| Wellington | 7,080 | 9.5% |
| West Coast | 484 | 0.6% |
| Unknown | 9,012 | 12.1% |
| Total | 74,464 |
Ethnicity
Mr Mitchell also requested information on legal aid recipients by ethnicity. The following information was provided:
Recipients of legal aid services by ethnicity, year to 11 March 2019
| Ethnicity | Recipients | % Total |
| African | 2 | 0.0% |
| Australian | 2 | 0.0% |
| Chinese | 135 | 0.2% |
| Cook Island Maori | 878 | 1.2% |
| Fijian | 8 | 0.0% |
| Indian | 322 | 0.4% |
| Middle Eastern | 2 | 0.0% |
| Multiple ethnicity | 1603 | 2.2% |
| Niuean | 129 | 0.2% |
| NZ European or Pakeha | 10,087 | 13.5% |
| Māori | 13,765 | 18.5% |
| Other | 2,272 | 3.1% |
| Other Asian | 1 | 0.0% |
| Other European | 252 | 0.3% |
| Other Pacific Islander | 2 | 0.0% |
| Samoan | 1,284 | 1.7% |
| Somalian | 5 | 0.0% |
| South African | 1 | 0.0% |
| Tokelauan | 9 | 0.0% |
| Tongan | 692 | 0.9% |
| Unknown | 43,013 | 57.8% |
| Total | 74,464 |
Open legal aid cases
Mr Little provided information in response to a number of questions from Mr Mitchell about the number and type of open civil legal aid cases at 11 March 2019. He revealed that at 11 March 2019, 2,015 solicitors were approved to undertake legal aid services.
For the purposes of the statistics, "open cases" were defined as cases that are open in the Legal Services Management System database. This indicates that no final invoice has been received from the legal aid provider, although the legal matter may have been disposed of by the court with a final invoice pending.
A question on the average number of open cases that an individual solicitor providing legal aid services had per month between 1 July 2018 and 11 March 2019 found that there was an average of 39.87 per solicitor each month.
Average open cases per month for individual legal aid solicitor, 1 July 2018 to 11 March 2019
| Region | Providers | Open cases | Average |
| Auckland | 444 | 14,385 | 32.4 |
| Bay of Plenty | 130 | 5,096 | 39.1 |
| Canterbury | 159 | 5,734 | 36.1 |
| Gisborne | 30 | 1,314 | 44.1 |
| Hawke's Bay | 52 | 2,262 | 43.8 |
| Manawatu-Whanganui | 55 | 2,638 | 48.1 |
| Marlborough | 12 | 370 | 31.7 |
| Nelson | 41 | 1,078 | 26.1 |
| Northland | 64 | 2,363 | 37.2 |
| Otago | 62 | 1,819 | 39.5 |
| Southland | 30 | 915 | 30.3 |
| Taranaki | 35 | 1,123 | 31.8 |
| Tasman | 1 | 1 | 1.0 |
| Waikato | 124 | 4,432 | 35.7 |
| Wellington | 181 | 6,847 | 37.9 |
| West Coast | 7 | 424 | 58.9 |
| Unknown | 8 | 6,357 | NA |
| Total | 1,434 | 57,157 | 39.9 |
Open cases by area of law
Information on open legal aid cases by area of law at 11 March 2019 showed a very high proportion (68%) of open civil legal aid cases were in Wellington. Open criminal and family legal aid cases tended to match the regional population size.
Open legal aid cases at 11 March 2019 by area of law and region
| Region | Civil | Criminal | Family |
| Auckland | 447 | 11,252 | 3,356 |
| Bay of Plenty | 52 | 3,723 | 1,790 |
| Canterbury | 67 | 4,290 | 2,239 |
| Gisborne | 6 | 1,212 | 248 |
| Hawke's Bay | 17 | 1,727 | 651 |
| Manawatu-Whanganui | 4 | 1,817 | 1,092 |
| Marlborough | 1 | 293 | 131 |
| Nelson | 35 | 675 | 453 |
| Northland | 21 | 1,435 | 927 |
| Otago | 12 | 1,188 | 789 |
| Southland | 18 | 625 | 335 |
| Taranaki | 14 | 676 | 638 |
| Tasman | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Waikato | 58 | 2,840 | 1,910 |
| Wellington | 1,572 | 3,616 | 1,932 |
| West Coast | 1 | 381 | 99 |
| Unknown | 1 | 6,852 | 9 |
| Total | 2,326 | 42,602 | 16,599 |