The NZ Legal Aid row, following the damning report on legal aid lawyers’ alleged abuse of the system from Dame Margaret Bazley, is overstated say almost half the lawyers surveyed by legal jobs website LawFuel.co.nz. The Bazley report last December alleged up to 200 lawyers nationally could be gaming the legal aid system, which has already resulted in the disbandonment of the Legal Services Authority by Minister of Justice Simon Power.
The LawFuel survey found that 42 per cent of lawyers thought Dame Margaret overstated her case, 27 per cent agreed with her, 15 per cent thought it was bad but not as bad as she stated, seven per cent thought it was not right at all and nine per cent didn’t know
