6 October 2010

Legal aid lawyer cancellations

The Legal Services Agency (LSA) has published the names of three lawyers whose legal aid listing approvals have been cancelled for failing to meet the standards and obligations required.

Auckland lawyers Iuni Sapolu, Josie Fuimaono-Sapolu and Brett Ravelich can no longer provide legal aid services. Their legal aid clients have been notified and will be reassigned to other lawyers by their local legal aid office. Depending on the circumstances, it may be impractical to reassign when a matter is nearly complete. However these lawyers will not be assigned new clients and all cases will be reassigned or completed within a specific timeframe.

LSA General Manager Stuart White said the Agency was working to improve the quality of legal aid representation following Dame Margaret Bazley’s review of the legal aid system, which found significant issues with the quality of services and with the mechanisms to manage the quality and efficiency of services.

“Legal aid is publicly funded and the public need to have confidence in the quality and professional integrity of the services provided by legal aid lawyers,” Mr White said.

“We recognise that by far the majority of the 3,000 legal aid lawyers provide very good service, and act with integrity. However, we inform the public which lawyers can do legal aid work, so we should also ensure the public knows which lawyers cannot.”

The names of legal aid lawyers whose listings are cancelled for failing to meet quality and service standards will now be published on the LSA website whenever a cancellation is completed. The other grounds for cancellation are administrative and these lawyers’ names will not be published but are removed from the online lawyer listing as part of the regular monthly update.

In general, the Legal Services Agency will cancel a legal aid lawyer if they are not supplying services to a standard that is acceptable to the Agency. Cancellation is not decided through a public tribunal or court but follows an internal review so there are restrictions under the Privacy Act on the information that can be given about individuals.

Mr White said the LSA will not publish the names of lawyers under investigation or give details on investigations that are underway because these need to be completed fully and fairly, and in a way that won’t prejudice the outcome. The Agency acts on all complaints so the number of investigations changes as they are completed or initiated, and can vary week by week.

ENDS

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