The bill amends the law governing the Lawyers and Conveyancers' Special Fund to expressly allow its money to be used for functions that enable, facilitate, or otherwise support community legal services. It clarifies that costs such as overheads and supporting functions can be funded from the special fund rather than only from Crown funding.
Parliament advanced this bill under urgency (committee of whole house, first reading, second reading, third reading) — moving it through faster than usual, with less time than normal for public submissions.
These are claims MPs made in Parliament’s debate — not verified facts.
This bill changes how money from the Lawyers and Conveyancers' Special Fund can be spent. That fund is built from interest earned on the trust accounts that lawyers and licensed conveyancers hold for clients, and it is a major source of money for community law centres — free legal help for people who cannot afford a lawyer. At present the fund can pay only for the legal services themselves. The bill amends the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 and the Legal Services Act 2011 so the fund can also cover functions that enable, facilitate or support the delivery of those services, such as administration and overheads.
It is a Government bill. The stated rationale is that letting the Special Fund cover these support functions means the costs no longer have to come from Crown (taxpayer) funding, freeing that money to be used elsewhere. Supporters see this as a sensible use of an existing revenue source; a concern is that loading more costs onto the Special Fund could stretch money otherwise available for frontline community legal help.
See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.