Why victims of violence want the Solicitor General’s head

They don’t speak with one voice.

But victims of abuse of care whose cases were investigated by the Royal Commission of Inquiry are targeting the head of the Solicitor General, Una Jagose.

“They want her gone,” says Laura Walters, political editor of Newsroom.

“A lot of different people have different ideas about how things should go and how things should change.

“Some people just don’t have the energy or resources to speak out or fight this, but the people I’ve talked to whose cases have been very central to all of this; whose cases were highlighted in the Royal Commission’s case studies and findings; they want her to leave.

“They say that the person who handled their affairs should not be in charge of this work in the future.

“But they point directly to the Solicitor General. They say she led it, she was at the forefront, she was in charge, and they can’t be sure what the government will do next while she’s still in that position.”

As the government’s chief legal adviser, Una Jagose has been responsible for the Crown’s response to legal claims by survivors since her appointment in 2016.

But the Royal Commission’s massive 16-volume report makes clear that some of the tactics and actions taken by Crown Law and the Attorney General’s Office over the years to prevent victims from making complaints were wrong.

Efforts to stop these claims have cost millions of dollars. The RNZ report says at least $3.5 million more than ten years.

Today on The Detail, Walters and news co-editor Tim Murphy explain why the site is publishing a series of articles about what the Royal Commission report found and who it chooses to do when it comes to decades of obstructing victims’ complaints. .

“His focus, if you will, was huge and broad across many people in many different positions and across many agencies,” Murphy says.

“There were elements throughout Iagos, but her particular role pushes them back and almost reveals itself. There were many other people involved in political matters, there were junior officials and other people, but this is the second law officer in the country; it is an agency that is held to the highest standards in how it conducts trials and handles cases. So when you see it all lined up in flashing lights in the huge report of the Royal Commission, the fact that… justice has not been done by this man, these people, these positions and this agency is glaring.”

Laura Walters says the fact that Iagose is still there and still has so much control and power will directly impact how the government responds to the report.

Jagose was a lawyer at Crown Law and worked directly on some of these cases at the time.

The Royal Commission report said emails were sent at the time suggesting psychological pressure on survivors could lead to them abandoning their legal battles.

Other tactics included delaying cases until the statute of limitations expired; pitting private detectives against victims’ families; withholding documents from police that would help victims file a claim and intimidation.

“These are internal government emails that she may have thought would never see the light of day, but now they will.”

If the cases had succeeded at the time, some of them would have set huge precedents and cost the Crown a lot of money – perhaps billions. They would also lead to political embarrassment.

The role of the Solicitor General is to act as a model litigant on behalf of the people of New Zealand. Today on the podcast we ask whether that means saving taxpayers money or seeking justice on behalf of a group of New Zealanders frustrated with the government.

“There have been a lot of civil cases where abuse victims have faced absolutely horrific things, and so you start to think, ‘Well, how much should you pay someone who’s dealt with this their whole life?’ So these are potentially big numbers. You can open the floodgates,” Walters says.

“You can see that the Crown and Crown Law, as well as people like the Solicitor General and local lawyers, have thrown everything at this. It looked like a win-any-ways situation.”

The government must apologize to the victims of the November 12 violence.

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