When so many innocent people appear to have been jailed in NZ, will National’s immoral legal aid scam increase that?
What many do not realize is that Legal Aid is a loan. You have to pay it back and the Government’s plan to charge 8% interest as a penalty on Legal Aid is an abomination, especially when you consider that’s a penalty rate far above the inflation rate.
The Government intend to make a profit off the legal aid debt, just consider how appalling that position is.
It’s an outrage that Legal Aid is a loan and that its eligibility is set so low that anyone earning the minimum wage wouldn’t qualify. The thresholds need to be significantly lifted and Legal Aid should be seen as a cost of a socially just society and not a user-pays loan to make a profit off.
Those who take Legal Aid so that they can defend themselves with the cheapest lawyer Legal Aid will pay for now have to pay a crippling 8% interest on top of that debt. What are the ramifications of policy as brutal as this? The working poor and beneficiaries face either a life of poverty if they are brought before the Courts or they simply choose to plead guilty rather than face a life of debt servitude.
It should come as no surprise then that the Government have had to write off $18million worth of legal aid debts…
More than 10,300 New Zealanders had their legal aid debt wiped last year – a big increase from 2013.
The huge spike followed reforms designed to haul more money back into Government coffers.
When then-Justice Minister Judith Collins announced plans to collect $127 million in outstanding legal aid debt in 2012, she sounded a warning.
“People need to understand that legal aid is, in fact, a loan, it’s not actually a gift, and if it can be repaid it should be repaid,” Ms Collins said.
The law was amended to introduce simple interest of 8 per cent on legal aid debt from six months, with interest first charged from May this year.
The Ministry of Justice sent letters to 47,000 people with outstanding debt in late 2013, outlining the changes and asking them to set up a repayment plan. That led to 11,205 applying for their debt to be written off last year, 10,306 of whom were successful.
There were 814 successful applications in 2013, and 776 in 2012.
We have the money to pay the richest NZers billions in tax cuts, to reinvade Iraq, to give to millionaire yacht races but we don’t have the money to properly fund Legal Aid so that the poor can obtain genuine legal representation.
Justice is blind and just became bankrupt.
There is a problem when the government can make money out of using the police to charge people with offenses. It creates an incentive to charge people for the cash return.
And if you think that the police in any western country would be above making profits from innocent people…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/09/06/stop-and-seize/
MPLEDGER;
Brilliant post and link.
Now the sleepy hobbits may see the evil that is on the way.
My understanding is that due to the underfunding of state police this
becomes a revenue gathering exercise to keep them afloat as they
are supposedly are allowed to keep the proceeds.
Add to that the corrupt cops that are in it for themselves.
Most don’t sue for small amounts of money.
This ‘War on Drugs’ is another huge scam because it is the elites that are inflicting them on to society and the little people take the rap.
Contracting out of Gvt services is the biggest danger of all and it is my prediction that when we see private agency’s on our roadsides
stopping at random checking for rego’s, warrent’s and more our
nightmare will begin.
Off course, it will be the poor that get targeted first and by increment ………?
Matyn,good post again to keep us informed of what’s happening.
The media aint doing it!
Stormcloudsgathering.
Cheers.
Legal aid can also be rorted if you know how.
Case in point; a separated coupled going through the Family Court. Spouse A* has assets locked away in a Family Trust (including a home); does not employ a lawyer; knows the legal system including delaying tactics; and recieves the DPB and Legal Aid.
Spouse B* has a low-paying job; pays for a lawyer; english is not B’s first language; has high legal fees; but no access to Legal Aid.
Spouse A will most likely avoid having to repay legal aid in the way A’s circumstances have been cleverly structured.
Spouse A and B separated because of controlling and violent tendencies from one of the two.
Justice? Not bloody likely.
Until legal aid is made fairly available to everyone who needs it, there will be no justice.
(* Gender roles have been deleted to avoid usual kneejerk misogynistic responses from certain quarters.)
No justice in Nz unless you can pay for it!
More jails will be built by private enterprise ,more profits to be had.
No social welfare unless young ones are prepared to be humiliated by clerks at WINZ offices.
Prices are rocketing but no increase in super for older people,but plenty of money for rises for Mps.This is a sick Government.
I am going through a nasty and complicated custody battle. I am receiving legal aid and have been put on notice of cost more than once in an attempt to discourage me from defending my case.
This tactic did not work with me though. When it comes to ensuring my childs welfare and bests interests are taken care of I will not be intimidated.
So what if I have to pay back how ever many thousands at $5 a week for the rest of my life if it means my child is no longer being left home alone in an unsafe environment.
Our justice system appears to be very under staffed and almost completely broken.
I have been battling now for a year and am still waiting for a hearing (trial) date.
The systems sucks but I am hopeful. I have spent hours on research and have supplied a ton of evidence.
One law for the rich and one for the poor, as these rich place these barriers over us so they can rule with impunity the evil rich.
Time for a revolution folks.
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