YES!!! the government has listened to the people….

I say that because alot of what has been said about the legal aid reforms, is very similar to what I proposed in my submission to the Legal Aid Reforms.

As mentioned here: http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/govt-unveils-legal-aid-changes-set-save-138m-over-four-years-ne-90653

The changes seem to be very good for those who can not receive Legal aid currently, as the other party wont be able to receive as much, by the looks of it, there will be a cap of $650, unless they can prove its going to be an expensive case, hopefully, this will encourage more mutual agreements, rather than having to deal with the other parties lawyer all the time, and there will be no more “Ill have to check with my lawyer” replies when requesting something outside of an agreement or order.

It looks like there will also be a User charge where the first $100 will have to be paid by the person on legal aid before the legal aid kicks in, reducing the amount of people who will initiate court proceedings though lawyers.

The only thing I can see that isn’t good is the protection orders and cases involving violence will still be with unlimited legal aid, which will probably end up with more accusations of violence, and child abuse to enable the other party to revieve legal aid. Only time will tell…

Also Lawyers for child will only be appointed if necessary, taking another part of the bottle neck out of the equation. The less lawyers involved in cases with our children, the faster things will take to happen. The more that get involved, the larger the bottle neck.