The number of duty solicitors working in the Dunedin District Court will be halved when Dunedin's Public Defence Service (PDS) starts operating next month, as a time of uncertainty continues for Dunedin's legal aid lawyers.
The introduction of the service will mean big changes for Dunedin's criminal bar, with many lawyers, including some long-serving senior lawyers who previously did duty solicitor and criminal legal aid work, finding themselves at best entering another unsettled period and at worst looking for other work.
The Dunedin PDS will begin with three lawyers, and, as well as taking a third of the places on a new, much smaller, duty solicitor roster, will also take half of the court's criminal legal aid cases, leaving half as many cases for private defence lawyers.
For context, in the year to June 30 last year, 66 lawyers worked on 2134 criminal legal aid cases that went through Dunedin's courts.
The Dunedin PDS will start in early November with four staff - senior Dunedin defence lawyer Campbell Savage will be the deputy public defender, assisted by two lawyers and an administrator.
As it builds up to its full capacity - about 1000 cases a year - the service expects to employ 10 lawyers in Dunedin eventually, but a spokeswoman said that would be reviewed if caseloads changed.
Criminal legal aid cases have been allocated on a rotational basis since November last year and many lawyers have already had the chance to consider whether remaining in legal aid work is viable, but changes to the duty solicitor service, which come in when the PDS starts, are a fresh blow.
Where 45 lawyers at present provide duty solicitor services in Dunedin, a new fortnightly roster has places for only 22 private duty solicitors and the PDS lawyers, who will take 33% of the duty solicitor work.
Private lawyers have had to apply for the 22 places on the roster, and so far 20 have been appointed by a project team including members of the PDS, who were advised by a panel that included a local senior lawyer recommended by the New Zealand Law Society, a court management representative and the legal aid regional manager. The input of police prosecutions and the judiciary was also sought.
Law Society Otago branch president Debbie Ericsson said the impact of the changes was already being felt by members of Dunedin's criminal bar who worked in criminal legal aid.
That some senior lawyers who had worked for years as duty solicitors in Dunedin had not been appointed on the new roster had been something of a shock, while others were waiting to see how the new system would impact on their practices before considering their futures, she said.
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said the duty solicitor appointments were aimed at getting the best mix of competent, reliable lawyers, and the roster would be structured in daily teams of lawyers with a range of skills and experiences.
The duty solicitor roster will be managed and overseen by the PDS.
People on legal aid only get to choose their lawyer if they are charged with a more serious crime.
Otago University criminal law professor Prof Kevin Dawkins said while the introduction of the PDS would see big changes in Dunedin, it also offered opportunities. It was providing an alternative career path for defence lawyers, and in other towns young lawyers who had worked for the Crown had switched to the PDS to round out their experience.
The introduction of the PDS in Dunedin would be difficult time for a certain segment of the legal profession, but change happened and the profession had to adjust, he said.
In two or three years, things would be much more settled.
The Justice Ministry spokeswoman said the changes were part of ongoing reforms to contain growth in legal aid spending and make it more sustainable.
Independent evaluations of the PDS have found where it operates it is cheaper than the equivalent private provision of legal services; the quality of legal services are maintained or improved; there are two thirds fewer jury trials; and there is no difference in outcome for clients in terms of the overall conviction rate.
And for the serious cases, the conviction rate for PDS cases is significantly lower than that for privately provided cases.
Dunedin Public Defence Service
• Starts next month
• Begins with three lawyers
• Third of places on duty solicitor roster
• Half criminal legal aid cases
• Eventually may employ about 10 lawyers
• Eventually about criminal 1000 cases a year
