Feeley defends using Auckland law firm

Adam Feeley.
Adam Feeley.
Queenstown Lakes District Council chief executive Adam Feeley is defending the council's use of an Auckland lawyer for dog attack prosecutions.

Lawyers in the resort town spoken to by the Otago Daily Times say local firms can handle such cases, and believe spending council funds out of the district was ''wasteful and unnecessary''.

Auckland lawyer Michael Walker, of Meredith Connell, has represented the council in several recent and ongoing prosecutions of Queenstown dog owners involving attacks on people and other animals.

However, Queenstown lawyer Stephen Brent said the expertise required for dog attack prosecutions was widely available locally.

''It does grate that council funds are disappearing out of town for legal services when we've got, in my view, ample skills and expertise to handle everything that the council can do.''

Another local lawyer, Alan Harper, said local authorities had a clear responsibility to buy services in their own communities whenever possible.

''To go down the process they have done, using a number of out-of-town firms, is wasteful and quite unnecessary, because all the expertise and knowledge - with a few obvious exceptions - is available in Queenstown.''

Out-of-town lawyers could be justified where there was a conflict of interest issue, or in ''rare'' cases where the necessary expertise was not available in Queenstown, Mr Harper said.

Dog attack prosecutions were ''definitely not'' in that category.

Mr Feeley said dog attacks were ''not minor matters''.

A consequence of conviction generally was the dog being put down, something owners contested vigorously.

Of the four prosecutions brought by the council in recent months, two had resulted in convictions and he hoped for the same result for the others.

''A young child being mauled by a dog is about as serious as our enforcement cases get.''

Meredith Connell were the country's most experienced criminal prosecutors, and operated on ''very modest'' Crown solicitor rates with a top of rate of $198 an hour.

It and the council's other non-local firm, Simpson Grierson, did not charge for flights or accommodation.

The council's management of its legal costs also required getting value for money, ''in which it is implicit that your legal counsel will achieve a successful outcome,'' Mr Feeley said.

The district's residents were ''simply interested in ensuring that the council use the best service providers who provide the best value for money,'' he said.

The council appointed a panel of legal service providers in 2013 after tendering its legal work.

Besides Meredith Connell and Simpson Grierson, it included South Island firm Lane Neave, Queenstown firm Mactodd, employment law specialists Quigg Partners and leaky building specialists Heaney & Partners.

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