A Masterton lawyer with 40 years' experience defending the poor is welcoming the Government's review of the legal aid system and says Wairarapa lawyers will stand up to scrutiny.
''The poor need good lawyers and good doctors just as much as rich people,'' Ken Daniel said about the legal aid system, which he said was a matter of fairness and justice that helped bridge the socio-economic gap between the haves and have-nots.
The review was prompted by a damning report from Dame Margaret Bazley, which found some lawyers and defendants were ''abusing the system to the detriment of clients, the legal aid system, the courts and the taxpayer.''
Under the new system legal aid lawyers will have to show competency to a selection committee with performance monitored and sanctions imposed where appropriate _ lawyers will have to re-apply after a fixed term, usually three years.
Mr Daniels said Wairarapa's legal aid lawyers would currently pass muster and said a proficiency benchmark was an essential part of justice.
''I think the first thing is that it's a really good idea that lawyers have standards tested like doctors and pilots, the public money needs to be spent with competence. I've got no problem with that and I don't think we've ever had any problems with competency in the Wairarapa,'' he said.
However, Mr Daniel said a drop in payments to legal aid lawyers over the past decade had taken many experienced lawyers out of the loop. ''In some centres you're getting a lot of newly qualified and inexperienced lawyers doing legal aid work and that's a great shame,'' he said.
Legal aid rates are charged according to the lawyer's experience and the difficulty of the case.
Mr Daniel said some lawyer's reluctance to work criminal and family cases was down to the poor pay _ he also said that, although the lawyers working family court cases were competent, there was a shortage of lawyers in the field compared to those willing to take on criminal cases.
Over the past 20 years legal aid cases have formed a significant chunk of Masterton lawyer Louise Elder's caseload and _ although she said the review was timely and long overdue _ in an industry with high overheads, remuneration needed to come under scrutiny.
''You need good people doing a quality job at a fair wage.'' Ms Elder echoed Mr Daniel's sentiments that Wairarapa was well served by proficient legal aid lawyers who provided a quality service, local knowledge of families and clients that was ''good value'' for the government.
Ms Elder said she empathised with Wairarapa lawyers unwilling to take on family court cases under legal aid because of the often complex nature of those cases and the attendant low pay.
Wairarapa Community Law Centre often refers clients to legal aid lawyers and manager Murray Henderson said the system was working in Wairarapa.
''We don't see a lot of areas where it's dysfunctional or failing individuals and we've certainly never seen any instances where it's been rorted as the report indicated,'' he said.
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