How has it come to this?

On Saturday I read the article on Stuff.co.nz  headed up Lawyers jeopardize swift court process: Judge. I counselled myself to give it a few days before I responded. Its now Monday and after a swift one hour walk to work I have calmed down sufficiently to respond. Just by way of introduction I have been practising as a Criminal Lawyer in the Auckland Courts since 1984. I have seen a number of statutes regarding criminal justice and criminal procedure come and go. When Simon Power was pounding his chest and making ape noises about changing the way Criminal Courts operate there were a number of senior  Lawyers including I remember the late John Haigh QC who said dont get rid of deposition hearings. Of course no body listened. The Government ensures that people who actually practise in the Courts have no input into criminal procedure. Now Lawyers stand accused of being the problem. Nothing new there. Neo liberalism wants to get rid of the annoying nitpicking professions so that there is nothing between Corporates and their slaves. The interesting aspects are those that are left out of the article. Firstly the bureaucrats as part of their ideological struggle got rid of a lot of experienced criminal lawyers by blackening their name and removing counsel of choice. This destroyed a lot of practises.This had to be done so the government could employ lawyers in the Public Defence system. So a lot of people are represented now by lawyers who dont have a huge amount of experience. Then the govt decreed that only experience in the past five years could be taken into account in approving lawyers for legal aid provision. This meant for instance that only 5 years of a lawyers 30 years experience. could be taken into account. Then the government got rid of approximately 120 experenced Court Staff. They then spent no doubt a lot of money on a computer system for court administration which apparently does not work. Finally the Chief District Court Judge decided to blame the Lawyers for delays in the Court System and said lawyers should start having costs awarded against them. How dangerous is this for the Rule of Law. Are the Police going to be fined if they cause delay?Will the Crown be fined if they cause delay? The learned District Court Judge blamed Lawyers after an impression from the Police. Did she talk to the Criminal Bar about delays? What can I say other than how has it come to this?
  
Ted Faleauto Response:

You are completely correct. As a criminal lawyer of over 20 years experience I agree. The Law Society and even judges have been given draconian powers over lawyers. The politicians have crushed much legal comment about their activities by burying lawyers in red tape, and audits and billing case management plans . It takes more time to meet new paperwork requirements and billing than it does to do many cases now.There has been an apocalypse among legal aid private lawyers by the government, with over the last few of years incomes dropping by 50 to 80%, and many have had to leave criminal practise or be employed by the Public Defender Service . The New NZ law society had all people appointed with no elections for a few years then slowly had partial elections of officials, which meant that they were picked by the government. Not suprising then to many that there was little assistance to criminal lawyers from them, though the criminal bar association did try belatedly, The NZLS were given gestapo like powers, with new 'unsatisfactory standard ' rules added to previous 'misconduct' so they can effectively get almost any lawyer at any time, (and this may likely lead to a tendency of picking scapegoats every so often to look like the work is being done properly). A lawyer was convicted of unsatisfactory conduct as he misdiarized a date and didnt appear in court. Well judges can fine lawyers now, and I expect that at least once a year every court lawyer will possibly miss an appearance. It is a culture of oppression. And when complaints were made by private counsel concerning the PDS over the last few years they were ignored, while private lawyers were hounded. Not surprising since the Legal aid body whose job it is to police them is part of the justice department ( or was a govt orgnisation) , and seemed to act more like their advertising agency.

Even now for urgent bail applications as I understand the PDS or govt lawyers are the only ones involved for any person who does not prefer a particular private lawyer. The expertise of a large number of criminal lawyers has been lost to the detriment of the public. It is not a question any more of winning or losing a case, the courts and politicians etc only care as long as the paperwork and processes are done. In fact over the last decade there has been constant moves to increase conviction rates unfairly by parliament. The prior inconsistent statement rule, the removal of spousal privilege, the majority verdict. etc etc. Convicting more people doesn't mean justice it just shifts the threshold and so once where it was better to let a few guilty escape, now it is to get every guilty person even if a few? innocent are also convicted. Pure efficiency does not mean better justice. the most efficient method would be to convict everyone.