Revised criminal legal aid assignment procedures at the Wellington, Lower Hutt, Porirua and Upper Hutt District Courts.
Effective from 28 May 2007
Background
For the Wellington, Porirua, Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt District Courts legal aid providers are no longer required to be duty lawyers at the court in order to be eligible for proceedings categories 1 & 2 rotation assignments. The removal of the link between participation on a duty lawyer roster and eligibility for assignment requires an amendment to existing instructions. The instructions below amend paragraphs 23 and 24 of current Agency policy on assignment and reassignment as it applies at the Wellington, Porirua, Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt District Courts.
Revised instructions: Assignment of proceedings categories 1 & 2 criminal legal aid cases at the Wellington, Lower Hutt, Porirua and Upper Hutt District Courts when there is no preferred lawyer
- For proceedings categories 1 & 2 grants when there is no preferred lawyer, assignment will be to categorised criminal legal aid providers who have advised Agency staff of their availability to undertake assignments.
- Practitioners are not required to be on the duty lawyer roster at the court in order to be eligible to receive assignments.
- For proceedings categories 1 & 2 cases when there is no preferred lawyer, assignment will be to categorised criminal legal aid providers who have advised the Agency of their availability to undertake assignments.
- Practitioners are eligible to seek listing for rotation assignment at all four test courts. However, please note that the Agency will be operating a system based on the equitable distribution of assignments across all four courts, rather than a separate system covering each individual court. In practice this will mean that over any given period of time practitioners in the Wellington metropolitan area will receive the same number of rotation assignments, regardless of whether they are listed at one or more of the four test courts.
For proceedings categories 3 & 4 cases where there is no preferred lawyer, assignment will be off a list of category 3 & 4 lawyers. The process for the assignment will remain as detailed in paragraph 24 of current Agency policy on assignment and reassignment.
