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The New Zealand Law Society has welcomed Friday's damning review of legal aid which says a sea change is needed to fix the system.
The Legal Aid Review report released on Friday says the system was being undermined by incompetent, unscrupulous and sometimes corrupt lawyers looking after their own interests.
The report, by Dame Margaret Bazley who headed the review, recommended the Legal Services Agency, which administers the aid, lose its independent status and be folded into the Justice Ministry.
It said administrative costs were out of control and raised serious concerns about how the agency operated which had opened the system up to abuse by bad lawyers.
Legal Aid helps those who cannot pay for their court defence, so their financial circumstances do not deprive them of a fair hearing.
Law society president John Marshall QC says the society was concerned about any lawyers who were not working adequately.
"However, we do need concrete evidence, and not just anecdotal reports, to initiate the formal complaint process."
New regulations from August this year including a national lawyers complaints service, which was there to handle these issues, he says.
The report had the potential to improve the system and access to justice and the society welcomed it, Marshall says.
"While we have yet to consider it in detail, we can say that we are delighted that it reflects much of our own position on the subject."
The society planned to work with the government to achieve an efficient system provided by experienced and competent lawyers.
It agreed with the report that the majority of lawyers providing legal aid were capable and that particularly senior lawyers needed to be paid properly to encourage them to participate in the system, Marshall says.
It was also concerned about the spiralling cost of administering the service and welcomed recognition that a change was needed in that area.
The society had been working to improve competency and in September had implemented measures including requiring barristers to have three years' experience before being able to practise on their own account.
Dame Margaret, who pulled no punches in the report, said some lawyers and defendants were "abusing the system to the detriment of clients, the legal aid system, the courts and the taxpayer".
"While there are very good lawyers in the legal aid system, there is also a small but significant proportion of very bad lawyers who are bringing themselves and their profession into disrepute."
The situation could not be allowed to continue, she said.
"The damage that incompetent and unscrupulous lawyers can inflict on their unsuspecting clients - and the potential to destabilise the court system, with resulting wasted expenditure of public money - is simply too great."
The report said the ties holding lawyers together as a profession were breaking down, with some lawyers operating as businesses without professional standards, and the legal aid system had played a role in that.
Poor practices included:
-Lawyers making sentencing submissions without having read the pre-sentence report;
-Lawyers ignorant of legal principles and not realising their own ignorance;
-Lawyers failing to turn up to court;
- "Car boot lawyers" using a District Court law library phone as their office number and using interviewing rooms as their offices;
-Lawyers gaming the system by delaying a plea or changing pleas part-way through the process to maximise payments -- Dame Margaret said unverified sources believed up to 80 percent of lawyers practising in Manukau District Court could be gaming the system;
-Lawyers who demanded or accepted top up payments from clients who do not understand legal aid;
-Widespread abuse of the preferred lawyer policy by duty solicitors, including taking backhanders for recommending particular lawyers to applicants.
Justice Minister Simon Power, who initiated the review, said the report was very concerning and the Government would implement its recommendations quickly.
Click here for Dame Margaret's report, Transforming the legal aid system .
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