5:00pm - 3 April 2025
Proposed changes for the Public Defence Service (PDS) are designed to increase case volumes, boost access to the service and contribute to court timeliness.
“The PDS are a highly professional group of dedicated, hard-working people, focused on ensuring clients receive high quality legal services,” says Director, Public Defence Service Peter Hutchinson.
“We have been reviewing our operating model to ensure that we are meeting our current performance expectations as well as achieving timeliness for the criminal justice system. A significant way in which we can do this is by being able to take more legal aid cases, within our current volume settings, from the 2025-26 financial year onward.”
“To achieve this within our current budget, we need to make changes to how the PDS operates and prioritises work, and to its organisational structure,” Mr Hutchinson says.
Today, a Proposal for Organisational Realignment was sent to PDS staff for consideration and feedback.
Under the proposal 25 roles would be disestablished, with 22 of these either support or management roles.
Twelve new roles are proposed to be established. Depending on final decisions made after consultation with staff, PDS would also look to establish a further 12 new lawyer positions.
Once the new lawyer positions have been established, there would be a net overall reduction of one position.
The delivery model for legal support services would also change, with the establishment of two legal support hubs – one in Manukau and one in Wellington.
It is proposed that the PDS reduce the size of the current standalone Appeals Team, with a corresponding decrease in the number of Court of Appeal and Supreme Court cases that the PDS can accept each year.
PDS lawyers with the required Appellate listing would still represent clients at appeals.
The proposal also seeks to improve the delivery, alignment and national consistency of the duty lawyer service.
The consultation period closes at 5:00pm on Thursday 24 April 2025.
“Our proposed reprioritisation, combined with the hiring of more lawyers is designed to help boost the number of PDS lawyers able to take legal aid cases,” Mr Hutchinson says.
“We will not be making any decisions until we have carefully considered all feedback from our staff. We appreciate that this is an unsettling time, and appropriate support is being offered.”
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