Shake up for lawyers doing legal aid work

Up to half the criminal legal aid work in Napier and Hastings will be undertaken by salaried lawyers from the Public Defence Service after it is introduced in Hawke's Bay.

The Ministry of Justice said 11 staff, with a main office in Napier and a "satellite" in Hastings, would eventually be appointed, including a part-time duty solicitor supervisor, an office administrator and a part-time legal secretary.

The Government-funded agency's arrival in the area will come eight years after the service was introduced on trial in Auckland, where it was made permanent at the end of 2008 with plans for expansion to other centres.

It is now operating in all Auckland, North Shore and Manukau courts, as well as Hamilton and Wellington, with more than 80 lawyers employed doing up to 50 per cent of the criminal legal aid cases in those areas.

It is about to be introduced in Dunedin, with Hawke's Bay and Tauranga to follow.

Senior Napier counsel Philip Jensen said while there had been misgivings among lawyers it had reached the stage where it would happen.

"Whether in the long run it is a success or not, only time will tell," he said.

Some were concerned that part of the process was to "cull" lawyers from the legal aid system.

He said if that happened "that type of thing will not be done openly".

"I don't know whether it's going to bear the great cost-savings they seem to think it will," he said.

The Ministry of Justice, in material introducing the service to Dunedin, said independent evaluations found the PDS provided a high-quality service.

It said the PDS also achieved cost savings of almost $1 million in Auckland-Manukau over a four-year trial, measured against equivalent private provision.

There was also no difference in outcomes for clients when measured against conviction rates, but convictions for serious cases conducted by the PDS were significantly lower than for privately provided services, the evaluations found.