It is fitting to provide some background as to why and where Litigation Support Limited emerged.
For the past 40 years, our company founder Ron McQuilter has been providing investigative services for lawyers, corporates and government. Though in dealing with the criminal Justice side of our profession, Ron's focus has primarily been on what is known by Pi's as "the side of the angels", Criminal defence PI work is colloquially known as "the dark side". Corporate legal investigative support has always featured as Ron built his business, while the criminal side in particular was never targeted, it just seemed to be left to others to undertake.
For all this time, Ron was well aware that individuals practicing in the legal profession jump from criminal to corporate, work all sides of the various arguments and for all clients. Indeed, most Judges in the Criminal Courts have worked both sides and it can be argued they must, to have the necessary grasp of the scope of potential legal complexities.
During this time, Ron has worked on a few serious cases, murder, extortion, rape, etc and was intrigued by the relationship between serving and former coppers, who used to work together and who found themselves on opposite sides, given the adversarial system that applies. Ron believes it fair to say that in the 1980, 1990' and into the 2000's there was often some animosity held. But the world has changed folks !
Unfortunately, it occurs to Ron that while technology and forensics etc have improved heaps in the past 40 years, the Police have not kept up in the product being produced. This is evident when you read the media about cases gone wrong, disclosure not being provided, the need for a Criminal Cases Review Commission G v New Zealand Police [2024] NZHC 189 per Thomas J. This case being the first one through the Commission. Cases are being aborted due to failure to disclose.
Another aspect that intrigued Ron was the number of PI's now working criminal defence cases for barristers, and in consultation with some it became obvious that they were being asked to do tasks that were outside their proven abilities. These are very experienced former coppers, but it is a well known fact that "not all investigators are equal" and as stated in the Clint Eastwood movie all those years ago, a man has to know his limitations [sic]. One investigator talked about having to trace a number of witnesses and while in the Police this was a task that could be given to someone with computer skills sitting on the police systems etc, they did not have such training and so struggled. Another was asked to interview several witnesses, requiring a simple few questions, but had to be in person, and all across the country. What became obvious was they needed, or rather desired, a team approach, it was what they were used to and felt comfortable with. They had to go back to the barrister, who had to go back to Legal Aid and quote to travel, when in fact a team approach would have been better for them, the job and the costs.
And so, in 2023, Ron started a project to talk to top investigators across new Zealand, many doing Legal Aid work and asking what they thought of working alongside one company who could provide them with templates for most tasks, assistance nationally, reporting help, administration help and a process to get paid each month, something else they sorely missed having been on a wage for many years. This is the reality of it all.
It has taken more than a year to put together the right concept, the right senior management team, systems and to recruit the right team players, to enable us to go live.
A new era has started !. We envisage it will take another year to get up to speed with barristers and investigators coming on board. Let's face it relationships are key to a lot of confidential information. But our system allows for barristers still to instruct their key investigators, so long as the investigator can leave their ego at the door and embrace the team on offer.
Our task is to be able to provide an entire suite of services as detailed on our website. page Click here
We hope this explains the purpose of Litigation Support Limited, why it took so long and we hope to be able to serve you for years to come as the Legal Aid company of choice for the legal profession.
