Battered women lacking legal aid

A shortage of lawyers willing to do legal aid work has led to battered women having to represent themselves in court.

The Women's Refuge and Sexual Assault Resource Centre in Marlborough has raised the issue. It said that in Blenheim the situation had become so bad there were only two lawyers prepared to take one legal aid case a fortnight.

In a letter to National's associate justice spokeswoman, Kate Wilkinson, the refuge manager Angela Brott said they were finding it almost impossible to get lawyers for clients who needed protection orders, leaving victims feeling vulnerable and unsafe.

The number of protection orders being granted by the Family Court has been steadily falling for the past five years, with women citing the cost of getting an order and their ineffectiveness as reasons.

The number of protection orders granted fell from 4066 in 1999 to 2645 last year. In the same period, the number of recorded assaults by males against females rose from 6949 to 7526.

The Legal Services Agency approved $4.5 million in legal aid for 3022 protection order applications last year.

In her letter, Ms Brott said the Women's Refuge had some sympathy for lawyers.

"Our experience shows that the number of hours allowed by the legal aid board is frequently too few and in the past we have been told by lawyers that they have no allocation of legal aid money left," the letter reads.

Ms Brott said Women's Refuge was left in the position of having to step in and write affidavits for clients.

The two lawyers in Blenheim had suggested women turn to lawyers in Christchurch or Nelson for help.

Ms Wilkinson said the situation highlighted problems with the legal aid system.

Heather Henare, National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges manager, said it was an issue Women's Refuge was aware of nationally and had been talking about for some time with the Ministry of Justice.

She said women were finding it difficult to get access to lawyers to represent them in gaining protection orders.

"What's happening is the lawyers who were doing legal aid are not doing it any more. It's not worth it for them, they don't have the time and they are not allocated the time," she said.

Prominent Auckland lawyer and Auckland District Law Society president Garry Gotlieb said in April he was refusing to do any legal aid work unless the fees were increased.

About 3000 lawyers are eligible to do legal aid work but the reality was that only a third of them did any major legal aid work, Mr Gotlieb said.

Proposed changes to the legal aid system are likely to see the number of people eligible for legal aid increase from 765,000 to 1.2 million.