Legal Block
Dame Margaret Bazley has released her damning report on the legal aid system and it is everything we feared – and more. Not only does it appear that some lawyers are ripping off bith the taxpayer and their legal aid clients, it also appears that they are a considerable part of the reason why the court process is so sluggish. I note particularly:
♦ ”Car boot lawyers” who operated with a phone, and met clients at court with no preparation.
♦ Many lawyers simply failed to turn up for cases, usually because they were double-booked.
♦ Some recent immigrant lawyers did not understand New Zealand’s cultural and legal framework, and defended clients on the values of the country they came from
♦ In major drugs trials, defendants would engineer dismissal of lawyers to destabilise the court and dissuade witnesses from co-operating. Offenders in family violence cases dismissed lawyers in order to prolong proceedings and get the victim to lose confidence in the power of a protection order to persuade them.
♦ Lawyers and defendants collude to make sure cases take as long as possible, a mutually beneficial arrangement under which the lawyer racks up fees and the defendant delays conviction and sentencing.
Bazley cites many other problems involving backhanders and excessive charges, but the items above are all things that would greatly slow down the court process; particularly the last two.
This is a situation that must not be allowed to continue. It is bad enough rorting the taxpayer, but dragging out court proceedings slows down the system for everyone. Justice delayed is justice denied. But justice delayed for gain is justice perverted.
Let us hope Power acts quickly to halt this perversion of justice.
Additional:
Of course, the lawyers all say they are innocent.
Anyone believe them?
Related posts:
- Pull the Plug Scientists are now using lawyers in their experiments, rather than...
- The Cost of Defending Abortion Right to Life are continuing their bid in the high...
- Why Lawyers Shouldn’t be Allowed to Run a Hospital Professor Mike Ardagh, from the Christchurch School of Medicine and...
- And Justice for Some… I have long thought that the current adversarial system we...
- Power Vindicates? I see South Africa’s Jacob Zuma has managed to get...
Nov 29 09 7:53 am
I am probably too cynical MacDoctor but I doubt that any legal action will be taken over this if what Cactus Kate says is true, that the majority of these lawyers are PI’s Maori and Asian. It wouldnt be pc and that would never do.
A commision on corruption wont happen either. It doesnt suit the lot of pollies we have in the house on both sides at the moment. How could John Key justify his backing of Helen to the UN or his appointment of Michael Cullen if all the facts came out. No it wont happen or if it does any commission will be given such a narrow terms of reference as to be useless.
Nov 30 09 8:34 am
The interesting thing for me about this was one of the reports by TV one last week when the news broke. They briefly talked to two lawyers in the Manukau district court who apparently had conducted what seemed to me to be very similar research recently, but who had quite different findings.
Very little was made of this fact – I’d be interested to see what the overlap of the two investigations were and the reasons for differences between them. Any thoughts?
Nov 30 09 8:52 am
Mark: Seeing as the Manukau district court was the place most cited by Dame Bazley for legal rorts, it would be somewhat imprudent to use their in-house data, regardless of how good the reputation of the two lawyers involved.
This is also not the first report to suggest that the legal aid system is being abused.