Retired high court judge John Hansen has been appointed to the board of the legal services agency to clean-up corruption in the legal profession.
Hansen admits he knew there was corruption in the system while the Law Society has been taken by surprise.
As a judge John Hansen says he has watched lawyers abuse the legal aid system first-hand.
The corruption was highlighted in Dame Margaret Bazley's damning report last week.
"Her views accord with the views that I formed over 20 years on the New Zealand bench", says Hansen.
Hansen has given his first television interview since the review alleged lawyers were ripping off the legal aid system by millions of dollars, he says the Law Society also knew about the abuses.
"They've been taken a little by surprise as to the extent of the problem, but it has to be said that the things in that report are things that have been talked about in legal circles for many years", he says.
The Law Society denies there is widespread corruption.
The new legal aid boss has already picked his first target, he wants to toughen up on lawyers getting $132 million a year in legal aid.
At the moment legal aid lawyers must hold a Law Society practising certificate, have no convictions, have at least one year's experience with a role in at least three hearings and complete a couple of law society programmes.
"As a judge I have seen a number of cases where legal aid lawyers have not delivered the quality of service that a person is entitled to", says Hansen.
The review showed a 'dysfunctional' relationship between the law society and the legal services agency, it is a relationship Hansen hopes to repair.
"They're people I've known for some time so I hope I can work on a personal basis with them", he says.
The first meeting is this weekend.
He suspects the legal services agency and the law society passed the buck over who's job is was to report the dodgy lawyers.
12.02 between them this whole issue and it's a big issue has fallen through a crack and it's turned out to be a very large crack and we can't paper over that crack we have to repair it completely
Thinks one solution is to make sure lawyers are only moved up grades if they are good enough. - probable causal factor
6.37 i think we need to discuss with the law society that certification process and whether there are any flaws in that, that would allow people to become certified to do legal aid work that perhaps shouldn't be
Thinks legal aid - in its current form - has attracted some incompetent lawyers who can only survive with government money.
7.38 where there is a lawyer of a level of incompetence that shouldn't be getting legal aid they're probably going to struggle to get any sort of work at all so there is a vested interest in hanging on to this.
10.55 how many of the staff in the legal services agency are you planning to keep?
At the moment i can't comment on that, i've arranged to meet with the board at legal services on monday morning, we will be meeting with senior management and discussnig the report and we will move forward from there
2.10 there may be a debate about the extent of the problem but it is clear the law society accept there is a significant problem
But the debate may be tougher than he anticipates when you consider these comments by the law society only two days ago.
He'll be meeting with senior members of the law society this weekend.
Plans to change the way lawyers move up grades
Plans to find the dodgy ones
12.02 between them this whole issue and it's a big issue has fallen through a crack and it's turned out to be a very large crack and we can't paper over that crack we have to repair it completely
Repair relationship with law society
Make legal aid mroe efficient
Getting rid of dodgy lawyers
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