By Geoff Adlam
Gross legal aid payments to providers were up 13.5% in the year to 30 June 2019 from the previous year. Total gross payments of $179.7 million were well up on the $158.3 million paid in the 2017/18 year and the highest since major changes were made to legal aid entitlements in 2011.
Information released by the Ministry of Justice shows that legal aid providers received an average gross payment of $144,112 and the median payment was $99,449.
The average and median payments per provider have risen steadily since 2013, with the average payment up 36% in the five years since 2014/15, and the median payment up 46% in that time.
The ministry says payments to firms are for legal services provided by approved providers under the legal aid schemes and may not have been made directly to any individual named in the report. The payments include the fees of approved providers, including those claimed on behalf of other approved providers, and disbursements for general office costs, travel costs, and special disbursements, which include fees for agents, expert witnesses, forensic tests, interpreters and special reports, such as medical or valuation reports.
As usual there were big variations between the payments received by providers, showing that a sizeable proportion of legal aid lawyers do not make much from legal aid. While eight providers received gross payment of over $1 million, 135 providers – 11% of the total – were paid less than $10,000. In the year to 30 June 2019, half (49.8%) of providers received gross payments of over $100,000. This was up from 45% of providers who received gross payments over that level in the year to 30 June 2018. The providers who received over $100,000 took 85.2% of the total payments, meaning the remaining 14.8% of gross payments went to 50.2% of providers.
There are noticeable variations in average and median payments around the country. The Auckland Council area has over 44% of New Zealand-based lawyers but accounted for 32% of gross legal aid payments in 2018/19. Rotorua, with 1% of lawyers received nearly 5% of gross legal aid payments, and Kaikohe (18 lawyers, 0.1% of total) received 1.3% of gross payments.
Grants by legal aid types
The Ministry of Justice now provides timely information on a range of justice matters in the Research & Data section of its website. Legal aid statistics for the year to 30 June 2019 are now available. These show that there were 77,058 legal aid grants, of which 75.4% were for criminal legal aid. Expenditure on criminal legal aid made up 58.1% of the total. Data on expenditure on legal aid in the 2018/19 year differs from that of gross payments to providers because of timing differences, and expenditure on criminal legal aid excludes grants assigned to the Public Defence Service “because they are not funded from legal aid”.
Information on legal aid recipients
The ministry also provides demographic information on legal aid recipients. The “unknown” category is high for grants by ethnicity. A summary of some of the key indicators is given on page 68.
Some other indicators
National MP and justice spokesperson Mark Mitchell has been busily submitting a large number of written parliamentary questions to the Minister of Justice, Andrew Little. Some of these relate to legal aid and Mr Little’s (always prompt) answers to the latest batch provide some useful indicators on New Zealand’s legal aid system at October 2019. The number of each written question is provided with each piece of information.
Applications
At 30 September 2019 the Ministry of Justice data showed that there had been 7,042 applications for legal aid made between during September. (WPQ 35444).
During September 2019, 6,475 applications for legal aid services were approved (WPQ 35443) and 408 applications were declined (WPQ 35442). Total applications and those approved or declined during the month do not correlate exactly, but the data indicates that around 6% of decided applications were declined in September 2019.
Approval of applications
During September 2019, it took an average of one day to approve a legal aid application. A provider is assigned at the same time an application is approved (WPQ 35349). During September 2019, 86 applications for reconsideration of a legal aid application were made, with 34 (40%) overturned based on new information, three (3%) overturned with no new information and one modified (1%). This means 48 (56%) were not successful (WPQ 35437).
Legal aid debt
At 1 October 2019, $148.1 million in legal aid debt was outstanding (WPQ 35441). At the end of September 2019, 30% of legal aid recipients had been set a repayment requirement. This was determined through the number of legal aid recipients with an initial prescribed repayment amount set for their legal aid grant, divided by the total number of legal aid recipients (WPQ 35440).
Approved providers and caseloads
At 1 October 2019 there were 2,314 approved legal aid providers. Of these, 187 (8.1%) were Public Defence Service employees (WPQ 35445). There were 894 approved duty lawyers (38.6% of total) (WPQ 35429 – it is noted that no PDS duty lawyers are shown for the Bay of Plenty in the answer). The providers had an overall average of 38.37 active cases (cases that were open in the Legal Services Management System database, with no final invoice received) (WPQ 35446). In the table opposite, the average active cases per provider column includes both PDS and non-PDS providers.
Gross legal aid payments, year to 30 June
| Year | Payments | Providers | Average | Median |
| 2019 | $179,707,442.95 | 1247 | $144,111.82 | $99,448.59 |
| 2018 | $158,318,520.26 | 1205 | $131,384.66 | $90,497.00 |
| 2017 | $143,379,904.64 | 1193 | $120,184.33 | $83,152.80 |
| 2016 | $134,759,778.10 | 1210 | $111,371.72 | $73,528.42 |
| 2015 | $130,215,953.30 | 1224 | $106,385.58 | $68,147.22 |
| 2014 | $124,580,223.80 | 1240 | $100,467.92 | $63,064.61 |
| 2013 | $130,258,884.90 | 1311 | $99,358.42 | $63,132.73 |
| 2012 | $148,306,784.40 | 1465 | $101,233.30 | $62,152.27 |
| 2011 | $154,090,071.28 | 1488 | $103,555.16 | $62,257.61 |
Gross legal aid payments, year to 30 June 2019
| Size of payment | Providers | % Providers | Total Value | % Total Value |
| $1 million + | 8 | 0.6% | $11,757,849.76 | 6.5% |
| $500,000 – $999,000 | 41 | 3.3% | $28,156,104.38 | 15.7% |
| $200,000 – $499,999 | 221 | 17.7% | $63,898,603.42 | 35.6% |
| $100,000 – $199,999 | 351 | 28.1% | $49,226,160.75 | 27.4% |
| $50,000 – $99,999 | 258 | 20.7% | $19,590,317.82 | 10.9% |
| $30,000 – $49,999 | 99 | 7.9% | $3,893,184.77 | 2.2% |
| $10,000 – $29,999 | 134 | 10.7% | $2,580,747.38 | 1.4% |
| $0 – $9,999 | 135 | 10.8% | $604,474.67 | 0.3% |
| Total | 1247 | 100.0% | $179,707,442.95 | 100.0% |
Highest total gross legal aid payments by location, year to 30 June 2019
| Centre | Providers | Total gross | % New Zealand | $100,000+ |
| Auckland | 433 | $57,149,834.20 | 31.8% | 206 |
| Christchurch | 110 | $14,610,395.00 | 8.1% | 53 |
| Wellington | 79 | $13,891,747.48 | 7.7% | 41 |
| Hamilton | 75 | $11,928,135.86 | 6.6% | 47 |
| Rotorua | 39 | $8,325,381.06 | 4.6% | 22 |
| Tauranga | 47 | $6,409,899.80 | 3.6% | 19 |
| Whangārei | 34 | $5,711,911.22 | 3.2% | 22 |
| Lower Hutt | 17 | $4,620,316.38 | 2.6% | 12 |
| Palmerston North | 21 | $4,590,206.75 | 2.6% | 15 |
| Dunedin | 43 | $3,925,875.22 | 2.2% | 14 |
| All Others | 349 | $48,543,739.98 | 27.0% | 170 |
| Total | 1247 | $179,707,442.95 | 100.0% | 621 |
Highest average gross legal aid payments by location, year to 30 June 2019*
| Centre | Providers | Average | Median |
| Kaikohe | 7 | $331,611.98 | $301,764.04 |
| Gisborne | 12 | $286,654.53 | $160,620.13 |
| Whanganui | 14 | $279,721.28 | $220,003.02 |
| Whakatane | 7 | $277,315.02 | $158,423.16 |
| Lower Hutt | 17 | $271,783.32 | $211,709.01 |
| Tokoroa | 3 | $238,707.29 | $302.113.06 |
| Hastings | 13 | $238,219.66 | $198,233.26 |
| Palmerston North | 21 | $218,581.27 | $168,735.72 |
| Rotorua | 39 | $213,471.31 | $111,454.42 |
| Rest of New Zealand | 1114 | $131,723.63 | $95,301.49 |
| Total | 1247 | $144,111.82 | $102,216.14 |
*Minimum of 3 providers per location
Legal aid grants by legal aid type, year to 30 June
| Type | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
| Criminal | 58,106 | 57,489 | 56,057 |
| Family | 17,485 | 17,885 | 17,897 |
| Civil | 1,171 | 1,227 | 1,021 |
| Waitangi Tribunal | 296 | 206 | 152 |
| Total | 77,058 | 76,807 | 75,127 |
Legal aid expenditure by legal aid type, year to 30 June
| Type | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
| Criminal | $96,498,233 | $81,093,364 | $68,794,351 |
| Family | $46,809,111 | $45,152,410 | $42,400,602 |
| Civil | $6,088,199 | $5,748,427 | $5,599,516 |
| Waitangi Tribunal | $16,409,801 | $15,871,030 | $15,487,388 |
| Total | $165,805,345 | $147,865,231 | $132,281,857 |
Proportion of people granted legal aid, year to 30 June 2019
| Measure | Criminal | Family | Civil | Waitangi Tribunal |
| Age 10 to 18 | 3% | 1% | 1% | 0% |
| Age 19 to 29 | 40% | 31% | 17% | <1% |
| Age 30 to 39 | 31% | 31% | 29% | 3% |
| Age 40 to 49 | 16% | 19% | 22% | 5% |
| Age 50 to 64 | 9% | 14% | 24% | 49% |
| Age 65 and over | 1% | 4% | 7% | 4% |
| Age unknown | <1% | <1% | 0% | 1% |
| Male | 69% | 30% | 59% | 43% |
| Female | 17% | 42% | 21% | 54% |
| Other gender | <1% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Gender unknown | 14% | 28% | 19% | 3% |
| NZ European | 10% | 17% | 10% | 0% |
| Māori | 17% | 11% | 12% | 42% |
| Cook Island Māori | 1% | 0% | 1% | 0% |
| Samoan | 2% | 1% | 0% | 0% |
| Other Pacific | <1% | <1% | 0% | 0% |
| Other ethnicity | 6% | 6% | 12% | 1% |
| Unknown ethnicity | 64% | 65% | 65% | 58% |
Approved legal aid providers by Justice Service Region, 1 October 2019
| Region | Non-PDS Total | Non-PDS Duty | PDS | PDS Duty* | Average active cases/provider |
| Northland | 88 | 33 | 35.76 | ||
| Auckland | 723 | 243 | 109 | 80 | 29.87 |
| Bay of Plenty | 174 | 72 | 9 | 40.32 | |
| Waikato | 200 | 72 | 17 | 9 | 32.45 |
| Gisborne | 34 | 18 | 48.13 | ||
| Hawke’s Bay | 68 | 25 | 7 | 4 | 43.27 |
| Manawatu-Whanganui | 76 | 35 | 48.19 | ||
| Taranaki | 48 | 15 | 35.35 | ||
| Wellington | 298 | 88 | 20 | 17 | 37.86 |
| Nelson | 48 | 18 | 25.35 | ||
| Marlborough | 12 | 8 | 29.50 | ||
| West Coast | 7 | 5 | 52.38 | ||
| Canterbury | 222 | 80 | 18 | 13 | 37.32 |
| Otago | 77 | 32 | 7 | 5 | 28.21 |
| Southland | 52 | 15 | 28.39 | ||
| Total | 2127 | 759 | 187 | 135 | 38.37 |
*Answer to WPQ 35429 shows none in Bay of Plenty.