Criminal Lawyer - Legal Aid

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Zeon

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#151449 25-Aug-2014 21:53

Hey guys,
So a friend has got herself into quite a bad situation. Basically her bank accounts are all frozen because her boyfriend is facing drug charges and stupidly she let him transfer his money into her accounts :duh:. Anyway there are many twists to the case with the most (and I literally lolled when hearing about this part) NZ's version of this guy actually exists it seems:

So anyway she just split from her boyfriend, has no money to pay for a lawyer because its all frozen and doesn't know where to go. She has no family etc. in NZ. So she's looking at legal aid. Anyone experienced the process or have any suggestions about a lawyer on there who is semi-not-crooked?

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MikeB4

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#1115537 25-Aug-2014 22:02

Its all here...

http://www.justice.govt.nz/services/legal-help/legal-aid

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andrewNZ

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#1115571 25-Aug-2014 23:10

Community law centre is a good start too.

SpookyAwol

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#1115609 26-Aug-2014 06:54

She needs a lawyer because she is being charged or wants a lawyer to get her money back?

NZCrusader

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#1115651 26-Aug-2014 09:03

Seems the girls are still picking the "cream of the crop" for boyfriends....

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Zeon

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#1115681 26-Aug-2014 09:39

She is in no way involved with the case apart from letting her boyfriend put his money in her account. So she just needs a lawyer to get it back. The case is still progressing so there is a risk that the crown may take it if she doesn't claim her money back.

OK I will suggest she goes to the community law centre. While the Justice ministry has a list of lawyers for legal aid, I'm betting a few are pretty dodgy so the centre may be a good place to start..

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MikeB4

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#1115939 26-Aug-2014 16:04

Why would they be dodgy, legal has very good lawyers approved. The profession is strictly controlled

wellygary

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#1115957 26-Aug-2014 16:25

Zeon: She is in no way involved with the case apart from letting her boyfriend put his money in her account. So she just needs a lawyer to get it back. The case is still progressing so there is a risk that the crown may take it if she doesn't claim her money back.

OK I will suggest she goes to the community law centre. While the Justice ministry has a list of lawyers for legal aid, I'm betting a few are pretty dodgy so the centre may be a good place to start..

IANAL but she is seriously involved in this case...

The police can't just seize assets of other people not arrested(in this case you friend's Bank Account) they need to have a court order/warrant to do it,

Therefore they have been able to convince a judge that the funds in those accounts may have come from dodgy activities,

now unless they have explciticly told her they do not believe she was complicit and had no knowledge of any of this ( and from what you have said they have not done this)

Then she needs to get a lawyer NOW, and go to police and get them to accept that she had no involvement, otherwise she could very easily see herself in court as an accomplice,

Drugs charges that involve the seizing of funds are serious and usually involve prison, She needs to get ahead of this as soon as possible,

Getting her bank accounts back are the least of her concerns......

This is really out of the realms of a community law centre, get her to ring a Legal aid lawyer

Edit: spelling

itxtme

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#1115978 26-Aug-2014 16:56

Laundering drug money, whoops!

Zeon

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#1115995 26-Aug-2014 17:00

wellygary:
Zeon: She is in no way involved with the case apart from letting her boyfriend put his money in her account. So she just needs a lawyer to get it back. The case is still progressing so there is a risk that the crown may take it if she doesn't claim her money back.

OK I will suggest she goes to the community law centre. While the Justice ministry has a list of lawyers for legal aid, I'm betting a few are pretty dodgy so the centre may be a good place to start..

IANAL but she is seriously involved in this case...

The police can't just seize assets of other people ( in this case you friends Bank Account) they need to have a court order/warrent to do it,

Therefore they have been able to convince a judge that the funds in that accounts may have come from dodgy activities,
now unless they have explciticly told her they do not believe she was complicit and had no knowledge of any of this ( and from what you have said they have not done this)
Then she needs to get a lawyer NOW, and go to police and get them to accept that she had no involvement, otherwise she could very easily see herself in court as an accomplice,

Drugs charges that involve the seizing of funds are serious and usually involve prison, She needs to get ahead of this as soon as possible,

Getting her bank accounts back are the least of her concerns......

This is really out of the realms of a community law centre, get her to ring a Legal aid lawyer

The police have already offered her a deal to get her part of the money back. She has asked me about it but I really do not want to give her any advice. She actually currently has a "lawyer" albeit it being the "saul goodman" style lawyer who is acting for all defendants in the case it seems also.... She needs a new, independent, non-dodgy lawyer to help her analyse the deal.

My fear for her is that perhaps some of the legal aid lawyers are dodgy so if she picks the wrong one she may end up in a bad situation again.... So has the law society vetted them or how do you know they aren't dodgy?

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MikeB4

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#1116067 26-Aug-2014 19:03

Read the list of lawyers you will see big names, remember the Gov't does not pay peanuts for this service, when I was dealing with legal the fees payable were very high and the list of approved professionals very high included some of the biggest names.

dejadeadnz

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#1116139 26-Aug-2014 21:52

KiwiNZ: Why would they be dodgy, legal has very good lawyers approved. The profession is strictly controlled

No offence, you really would be wrong to believe this, especially after the recent bout of legal aid reforms and cutback. 3 years of reading low quality rubbish (actually saying "low quality" in many cases would be an insult to crap) from legal aid defence lawyers on behalf of the judiciary opened my eyes. The profession is still pretty strictly controlled but the calibre of lawyers that take on criminal legal aid work can be highly variable. Some of them are excellent but many aren't even average, if you value things like realistic appraisal of a client's chances and lawyers upholding their duty to the court, e.g. not misleading the court on the state of the law and producing relevant, up-to-date legal submissions. OP: get your friend to try Ron Mansfield and see if he will agree to take her case on. Steven Bonnar is also excellent but might not do legal aid work after being made a QC.

Michele Wilkinson-Smith is also excellent and I know she often does legal aid work (as does Ron Mansfield, for that matter). Anthony Rogers is pretty thorough also and I THINK he does legal aid work also. But overall, your friend needs to understand one thing: unless she is charged with offences that are classified as at least category 3 under the legal aid regime, she will not be able to choose her own lawyer if she wants legal aid. You can apply to MoJ to change lawyer if there's a breakdown in relationship etc but such requests are not easily granted. But if she isn't charged and requires legal aid to contest any freezing orders, I think the legal aid regime restricting one's ability to choose a lawyer may not apply but don't quote me on it.