Civil Legal Aid
If you cannot afford to pay for your legal fees, you may qualify for legal aid.
Your eligibility for legal aid will be assessed on your income and your assets.
For further information in respect of Civil/Family Legal Aid please visit the Ministry of Justice website at http://www.lsa.govt.nz/services/legal-aid/getting-legal-aid
From the Legal Services Agency website you will see that Civil/Family Legal Aid is available for:
Family matters, such as:
- relationship property problems
- child support or maintenance
- problems to do with care of children
- protection orders (domestic violence)
- care and protection orders for children and young people
- adoption
- paternity
- compulsory treatment orders (mental health)
Suing someone, being sued or appearing in the District or High Court over a civil matter, such as:
- recovering a debt
- breach of contract (for example, hire purchase)
- bankruptcy or insolvency
Matters dealt with by some tribunals and specialist courts, such as:
- Employment Relations Authority
- Environment Court
- Human Rights Review Tribunal
- Legal Aid Review Panel
- Maori Land Court
- Refugee Status Appeal Authority
- Social Security Appeal Authority
- Taxation Review Tribunal
- Tenancy Tribunal
- Waitangi Tribunal
And Civil/Family legal aid is not available for:
- problems that would not go to court
- divorce itself (“dissolution of marriage”)
- Disputes Tribunal
- immigration matters (except for refugee matters)
- companies or groups of people (except in some cases such as Waitangi Tribunal)
- reviews by Work and Income (but legal aid is available for an appeal of the review decision to the Social Security Appeal Authority)
- problems with schools, universities and other educational institutions
- Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal
We can complete the application for legal aid for you.
The information we will require to complete the application for you is:
- Your total income for the year or the type of benefit you are in receipt of
- The number of dependent children (children under 16) in your care
- If you have a partner, they will need to complete a separate Statement of Financial Position
- If you own a house, the value of your house and mortgage (please check your rates notice)
- The value of any assets you own
- The value of any debts you owe
- Your Work and Income New Zealand client number (if applicable)
If you are granted legal aid, you may have to repay some or all of your legal fees to the Legal Services Agency. Repayments can be made in different ways and it will depend on the assessment of your income and assets. You may have to repay your legal fees by instalments, lump sum or authorise a statutory land charge to be registered against your property.
If you are applying for legal aid for a matter under the Domestic Violence Act 1995, such as an application for a protection order, it is unlikely that you will have to repay any of your legal fees to the Legal Services Agency as there is a special exemption for domestic violence proceedings. However, you may be assessed to repay your legal fees in respect of other matters.
