Lawyers probed over legal aid

Legal Services Agency (LSA) says it is investigating six lawyers over their billing as the agency looks to clean up alleged rorting of the service.

The agency will not name the six lawyers until investigations are completed, One News reported.

Last year the taxpayer-funded LSA gave $137 million in legal aid funding to lawyers and a report by Dame Margaret Bazley claimed more than 200 lawyers were rorting the legal aid system.

However, Russell Fairbrother, the lawyer for high-profile defence lawyer Chris Comeskey, warned it would scare lawyers off legal aid work.

Comeskey recently pleaded guilty to professional misconduct, including falsely invoicing for legal aid funding.

Legal ethics expert Duncan Webb, says while transparency is desirable, he warns that if lawyers are "named and shamed" the public could assume they are crooks when it might just be bad office management.

(Published by The NZ Herald – August 3, 2010)