Lawyers' leader quits legal aid work over pay

Gary Gotlieb

Prominent Auckland lawyer Gary Gotlieb has turned his back on legal aid work, firing a broadside at the Government in the process.

Mr Gotlieb, whose cases include a seven-year battle to gain compensation for three young Auckland women wrongly jailed for a crime they did not commit, has accused the Government of subjecting lawyers to "emotional blackmail" to maintain a legal aid system "ready to fall apart".

Mr Gotlieb, the Auckland District Law Society president, told the society's magazine Law News he would no longer accept legal aid work unless fees were increased.

"The facts are that lawyers everywhere are getting less and less enamoured with undertaking legal aid cases and we are all going to have to decide individually what our future is with an unworkable system."

However, Justice Minister Mark Burton said the Government had just expanded the number of people eligible for legal aid, which had been its first priority, and had put the machinery in place for legal aid rates to be reviewed.

"Families with a child, on $21,000 a year, would not be eligible for legal aid as it was and the changes we've put in place lift that bar to over $36,000.

"That, I think, was an important priority. My predecessor flagged, and I have also flagged, that once this legislation is bedded in ... then looking at remuneration will be an important thing to do."

Mr Burton said government involved making decisions about priorities and resourcing, and he believed it was right that extending legal aid had been the Government's first step in reviewing the system.

It was also important to look at pay rates, and the Legal Services Agency would also look at ways to streamline the amount of paperwork legal aid lawyers had to work through.

Lawyers have been agitating for higher legal aid pay rates for some time. This year NZ Law Society president Chris Darlow warned that competent lawyers were turning away from legal aid, which would increase the risk of miscarriages of justice.

Mr Gotlieb said his decision to stop taking legal aid cases had been sparked, in part, by the increase in the number of people eligible for legal aid - from 765,000 to 1.2 million.

He said that of New Zealand's 10,000 lawyers, 3000 did legal aid work.

"But in reality only 1000 do any major legal aid work. Isn't it indicative of something that 90 per cent of lawyers don't want to do it?"

He said it was not fair on his paying clients to have them effectively subsidise his legal aid work - which he said his accountant called "pro bono work".

"Legal aid lawyers are compassionate people and, quite frankly, their sense of duty to the poor and disadvantaged members of our community is being taken advantage of by a Government which is effectively subjecting members of the profession to a form of emotional blackmail."

But Mr Burton rejected the accusation that the Government was exploiting lawyers' goodwill. "I certainly don't take them for granted. I appreciate the good work that they do," he said.

"He's entitled to say what he is saying. I don't really have a comment on that."

Pay disparity

Lawyers' rates, criminal cases
* Junior Crown solicitor, $141 an hour.
* Legal aid lawyer, $100-$135 an hour.
* Senior Crown solicitor, $216 an hour.
* Legal aid lawyer, $130-$165 an hour.

Travel expenses
* Crown solicitors, up to $143 an hour.
* Legal aid lawyers, $70.

2004-2005 totals
* 61,392 legal aid grants totalling $91m.