The Legal Aid Office is to undergo a strategic review to make the service more efficient, the Junior Minister of Justice announced in the House of Assembly.

Dennis Lister III, when he provided details about the Ministry of Justice’s Budget allocation on Monday, revealed that some functions of the office will be brought in-house to save costs on external counsel.

He said: “This year the Legal Aid Office will undergo a full review as well as develop a strategic plan aimed at improving efficiency and ensuring continued access to justice for all Bermudians.”

Legal Aid, which makes sure that legal advice and representation is readily available to those who need it, saw its budget boosted by 21 per cent this fiscal year to $2.69 million.

The Budget for the ministry overall was up 10 per cent on last year to $63.24 million.

Performance measures for the Legal Aid Office in 2025-26 included a target to assign 75 per cent of new cases to in-house legal aid counsel.

Mr Lister said that the office met, and in most cases exceeded, the performance measures but added that this fiscal year, the goal is to assign 85 per cent of new legal aid certificates to in-house counsel.

He told MPs: “This will be challenging but with the imminent relocation of the Legal Aid Office to a larger, more suitable space, it is anticipated that the recruitment of more permanent in-house counsel and more modern systems will enable the Legal Aid Office to meet this goal.

“The larger space will allow for the recruitment of more legal aid counsel to manage cases in-house, which will result in cost savings and broader public access to justice.”

Mr Lister said that the number of new legal aid certificates granted each year fluctuates owing to “unpredictable socio-economic and other factors”.

Since April 1, 2025, the office has processed 286 new applications, of which 154 were approved, 96 declined and 18 deferred.

Mr Lister said: “Individual client cases managed by in-house counsel generated cost savings of approximately $1,225,000 in legal fees which would otherwise have been paid to external counsel.

“External legal fees remain the largest area of expenditure for the Legal Aid Office, except for salaries, and continue to be challenging to accurately predict.

“Last year, the legal fees paid to external counsel were higher than predicted for several reasons including an increase in the rate of murder and other serious violent crimes as well as conspiracy to import firearms, ammunition and illegal drugs into Bermuda.

“Multiple defendants were charged and tried together in many serious cases.

“In most cases, in-house legal aid counsel is only able to represent one defendant while the other two, three or more co-defendants, who may all qualify for Legal Aid, must be represented by external counsel.

“Although the legal aid committee requires brief fee proposals from counsel to ensure that fees are carefully managed, strictly necessary and reasonable, it is difficult to predict when trials will occur and whether unanticipated preparation, legal research and court appearances may be made necessary by any number of factors outside of the control of the counsel …

“The past fiscal year included payment of fees to external counsel for retrials, multi-defendant criminal trials and other types of complex litigation.”