98 S e cti o n T w o – c iv il and politi cal rights to monitor this pilot programme’s impact on access to justice. Legal Aid Certain groups continue to have difficulty in accessing legal aid, including disabled people, women, refugees, victims of collapsed financial institutions and victims of historic claims of abuse. In its 2007 comments on New Zealand’s sixth periodic report under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the CEDAW Committee noted its concern about the barriers women faced in accessing legal aid. 44 In 2009, Dame Margaret Bazley completed her review of the legal aid system. 45 Her report found “system-wide failings”. As a result, the Government has initiated a number of changes to the system, which include: • competency testing for legal aid providers (performance monitoring will be in place by July 2012) • expanding the Public Defence Service to Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch • introducing changes to improve the duty lawyer scheme • streamlining processes for assessing applications for low-cost criminal cases in the summary jurisdiction • developing national standards for community law centres • bringing the functions of the Legal Services Agency into the Ministry of Justice – an independent statutory officer will be responsible for granting legal aid. Changes that do not require legislative amendment are being implemented over the next year; those that do require amendment will follow the legislative process. These changes are designed to “deliver access to justice for those who are most in need in a way that is appropriate to both their needs and those of the justice system”. 46 While most of the recommendations in the report are highly critical of the existing system, the extension of the Public Defence Service to Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch reflects positively on the public defenders programme piloted in Auckland. The evaluation report for the Public Defence Service showed that, where the volumes of work are sufficient (such as in the major centres), the Public Defence Service could provide services more efficiently than private lawyers, with no perceivable decline in quality. 47 In the context of the Ministry of Justice’s current review of community law centres, the report also made positive observations that “community law centres are too important to be allowed to fail or to have their services restricted significantly”. 48 Security for costs Concerns have been raised about the use of discretionary costs orders in civil courts. Such orders essentially require a party to pay into court an amount equal to what the judge decides the opposing party would likely spend in defending the case. The sum is forfeited where the instigating party loses. The financial burden imposed by these costs orders can effectively preclude a large proportion of New Zealanders from being able to seek redress through the civil courts. The legal profession A committed legal profession is also critical to ensuring access to justice. Sir Owen Dixon said on the occasion of taking his oath as Chief Justice of Australia: [T]here is no more important contribution to the doing of justice than the elucidation of the facts and the ascertainment of what a case is really about, which is done before it comes to counsel’s hands. Counsel, who brings his learning, ability, character and firmness of mind to the conduct of causes and maintains the very high tradition of honour and independence of English advocacy, in my opinion makes a greater contribution to justice than the judge himself. 49 44 CEDAW/C/NZL/CO/6 (2007) 45 Legal Aid Review (2009), Transforming the Legal Aid System – Final Report and Recommendations (Wellington: Ministry of Justice) 46 Legal Aid Review (2009), p 11 47 Legal Aid Review (2009), para 407 48 Legal Aid Review (2009), p 7 49 Owen Dixon, ‘Upon Taking the Oath of Office as Chief Justice’ in Jesting Pilate, 1965, p 247