Legal Aid High Cost Case policy & Amendment to Grant form changes

Overview

We are seeking feedback on a proposed new:

• family and civil legal aid amendment to grant form
• criminal and high cost case amendment to grant form
• high cost cases policy.

You may find each of these attached at the bottom of this page, or they are available to view in each respective page in this consultation.

Currently, there are eleven different amendment to grant forms across the four jurisdictions of criminal, civil, family and Waitangi. We also have a high cost case plan that we require to be updated when an amendment to grant form is submitted for a high cost case. We have received feedback from our staff and providers that there are too many forms and often the wrong one is used. This results in rework and delay on both ends.

The Ministry is proposing to combine the current eleven amendment to grant forms into three (Criminal, Civil/Family and Waitangi).

For similar reasons, we have also been reviewing the high cost case framework to streamline the management of those cases.

Your feedback will help ensure the new forms and the high cost case policy are fit-for-purpose and meet the needs of our customers and providers.