Changes to Legal Aid funding in effect

Changes to Legal Aid funding came into effect on 2 September 2013. The reforms under the Legal Services Amendment Act 2013 include charging legally-aided clients for most family and civil disputes. Legal Aid applicants are now required to pay a $50 (including GST) 'user charge'.

Exemptions:

The user charge is not payable by a person applying for the following orders under the Domestic Violence Act 1995:

• a protection order (Part 2)
• an order relating to property (Part 3)
• to appeal or respond to an appeal under that Act

The user charge is not payable with respect to the following proceedings under the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989:

• Care and protection of children and young persons (Part 2)
• Trans-Tasman transfer of protection orders and protection proceedings (Part 3A)

Further information and other changes can be found on the Ministry of Justice website.

Image: My Trusty Gavel by Brian Turner. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)