Legal Aid Lawyer Rosters

This section contains rosters for legal aid providers. Legal aid provider rosters are administered by the national scheduling team in National Service Delivery Operations Support (NSD-Ops).

For any queries regarding the roster or the operation of the PDLA service, contact the national scheduling team via the below email address.

Email: PDLA@justice.govt.nz

For any queries regarding other rosters or the operation of these services, contact the national scheduling team via the below email address.

Email: Duty.Lawyer@justice.govt.nz

If you have taken an absence from the duty lawyer roster and wish to return, please first email to request confirmation of your approval status.

Email: legalaidprovider@justice.govt.nz

Mental health lawyer roster

The purpose of this roster is to assist patients to be referred to legal aid providers in a timely matter for mental health legal aid cases to meet their needs. The roster is renewed every four months.

If you are a rostered lawyer and have any questions regarding the mental health rosters, contact the national schedulers at duty.lawyer@justice.govt.nz

Information on the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act can be found here.

Auckland region - expires 31 August 2024 [PDF, 202 KB]

South Auckland - expires 31 August 2024 [PDF, 158 KB]

Christchurch- expires 31 July 2024 [PDF, 170 KB]

Wellington - expires 31 August 2024 [PDF, 156 KB]

Hutt Valley - expires 31 August 2024 [PDF, 174 KB]

Porirua - expires 31 August 2024 [PDF, 173 KB]

Warrant of commitment lawyer roster

Legal Aid Services has been working with the New Zealand Law Society and the Auckland District Law Society to improve access to justice for refugee and protected persons involved in Warrant of Commitment (WOC) proceedings.

The purpose of the roster is to enable the Duty Lawyer Supervisor to contact a provider with relevant experience, approval and capacity to represent new clients responding to an application for a WOC. The roster will be renewed periodically as and when required.

Manukau - expires 14 July 2024 [PDF, 151 KB]

Police Detention Legal Assistance roster

The PDLA roster is generated as and when required to ensure a sufficient number of lawyers are available to provide legal advice and/or assistance to any unrepresented person who has been detained by police.

The Police Detention Legal Assistance (PLDA) service operates under the authority of the Secretary for Justice as a specified legal service pursuant to s 68(2)(b) of the Legal Services Act 2011. Information and resources for PDLA lawyers can be found here.

To access the PDLA roster, click here(external link)

Duty lawyer roster

The monthly rosters are generated to provide the courts with the required number of duty lawyers to effectively service the court. These are released periodically as and when the court provides Legal Aid with the required information.

If you are a rostered duty lawyer in a non- Public Defense Service (PDS) court and you are no longer able to work, contact the national schedulers and your court to advise the legal aid lawyer replacing your rostered day.

If you are a rostered duty lawyer in a PDS court and you are no longer able to work, follow the process outlined in the instructions specific to your court.

The object of the duty lawyer service is to ensure that a sufficient number of lawyers are available at each District Court for the purpose of assisting, advising, and representing unrepresented defendants charged with a criminal offence.

Information and resources for duty lawyers can be found here.

Alexandra - expires 31 May 2024 [PDF, 113 KB]

Auckland expires 18 May 2024 [PDF, 126 KB]

Ashburton - expires 31 May 2024 [PDF, 144 KB]

Blenheim - expires 30 June 2024 [PDF, 155 KB]

Christchurch - expires 22 June 2024 [PDF, 214 KB]

Dannevirke - expires 31 May 2024 [PDF, 125 KB]

Dargaville - expires 31 May 2024 [PDF, 119 KB]

Dunedin - expires 27 July 2024 [PDF, 188 KB]

Gisborne - expires 30 June 2024 [PDF, 155 KB]

Gore - expires 30 June 2024 [PDF, 146 KB]

Greymouth - expires 31 May 2024 [PDF, 123 KB]