Part 2Legal aid
Legal aid grants for Treaty of Waitangi claims
48Assessment of financial resources
In determining whether the group of Māori for whose benefit the claim to which the application relates is made would suffer substantial hardship if aid were not granted, the Commissioner may take into account not only the financial resources of those members of the group who are immediately involved in making the claim, but also the extent to which other members of the group, or any incorporated body that represents the members of the group, or both, might reasonably be expected to contribute towards the costs of the proceedings.
The Commissioner may, in his or her discretion, refuse to grant the application if the applicant does not supply sufficient information concerning the financial resources of such persons and bodies as the Commissioner may specify for the purposes of making a determination referred to in subsection (1).
In determining whether to refuse to grant an application on the ground specified in subsection (2), the Commissioner must consider and have regard to the following matters:
- whether the applicant has made all reasonable endeavours to obtain the information required to be supplied to the Commissioner under that subsection:
- whether the matter in respect of which the application is made is of sufficient importance or complexity to warrant the granting of the application even though that information has not been supplied:
- whether it would be unjust to refuse to grant the application merely because that information has not been supplied.
In subsection (1), incorporated body includes—
- a Māori Trust Board (within the meaning of section 2(1) of the Maori Trust Boards Act 1955):
- a Māori incorporation (within the meaning of section 4 of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993):
- a trust constituted under Part 12 or section 338 of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993:
- a trust continued as an ahu whenua trust by section 354 of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993.
Compare
- 2000 No 42 s 43