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Legal Services Act 2011

Legal aid - How Commissioner may enforce conditions of grant - Decisions not to recover debt, write-offs, and refunds

43: Commissioner may write off amounts payable

You could also call this:

"The Commissioner can cancel debts if paying would cause hardship."

Illustration for Legal Services Act 2011

The Commissioner can decide to write off some or all of the money an aided person owes. This can happen if the Commissioner thinks making the person pay would cause them serious hardship. It can also happen if it would cost the Commissioner too much to try to get the money back, or if the Commissioner thinks it would be fair to write off the debt. You are no longer liable to pay the debt once it has been written off. If you repay some or all of a written-off debt, the Commissioner must give you back the amount that was written off.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM3142863.

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Part 2Legal aid
How Commissioner may enforce conditions of grant: Decisions not to recover debt, write-offs, and refunds

43Commissioner may write off amounts payable

  1. The Commissioner may write off all or any part of any repayment, interim repayment, or any other debt payable to the Commissioner by an aided person in any of the following circumstances:

  2. the enforcement of the debt would, in the opinion of the Commissioner, cause serious hardship to the aided person:
    1. the cost to the Commissioner of enforcing the debt is likely to exceed the amount of the debt that is likely to be repaid:
      1. the Commissioner considers that it would be just and equitable to write off the debt.

        1. When a debt has been written off under this section, the Commissioner must give notice to the debtor of the write-off.

        2. When a debt is written off under this section, the debtor is, from the date of the write-off, no longer liable to pay the debt.

        3. If, despite the write-off, a debtor repays some or all of a written-off debt, the Commissioner must return the amount that was written off.

        4. The write-off of a debt does not affect the Commissioner's obligation to pay any person who provided legal services under the relevant grant of legal aid.

        5. In subsection (1), serious hardship has the meaning given in section 42(4).

        Compare
        Notes
        • Section 43(1): amended, on , by section 11 of the Legal Services Amendment Act 2023 (2023 No 61).