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Who pays for a lawyer at a coroner's inquest? For police families in New Zealand, often nobody

Oct 4
5 min read

When a police officer dies by suspected suicide, the family can end up facing the Coroner's Court on their own. Allister Rose on where families can and can't get help, and why we're asking Kiwis to chip in.


By Allister Rose, Founder, Blue Hope Foundation. Allister spent 15 years with New Zealand Police and worked as a paramedic in London before starting Blue Hope in 2022.Updated 4 October 2026



The short answer

If you're a police family in New Zealand heading to an inquest after a suspected suicide, there's no public fund that will reliably pay for your lawyer. Legal aid is means-tested and many families won't qualify. The Victim Assistance Scheme is for victims of crime. Victim Support is brilliant but doesn't fund lawyers. ACC only helps in limited cases and never with the inquest itself. Meanwhile, the government agencies involved usually turn up with lawyers paid for by the taxpayer.


That's why Blue Hope Foundation, a New Zealand charity that backs police officers, paramedics and their families, is raising money on Givealittle so a grieving police family can have a lawyer in their corner.



What's an inquest actually like for a family?

Picture the room. The coroner up the front. Lawyers for the agencies at their tables, files all tabbed and ready. And somewhere behind them, a wife or a mum with a folder of her own, trying to hold it together while strangers go through the last months of someone she loved.


For police families it often comes years after the funeral, just when life's started to find some kind of shape again. In 2023 we lost three uniformed police staff to suspected suicide in a single month. Three years on, the coronial process is still grinding along, and Blue Hope is standing alongside police families who are now facing it. We're keeping their names private. Their grief isn't public property.


Why does a family need a lawyer at an inquest?

An inquest isn't a trial. Nobody's in the dock. The coroner's job is to work out how and why someone died and to recommend changes so it doesn't happen to another family.


But families often know things nobody else does. What they saw at home. Who they told. What happened next. For that to count, someone has to ask for the right documents, call the right witnesses and put the hard questions to senior officials who've been well briefed. Families can do some of that themselves, with the coroner's agreement. But very few people can do it well while they're grieving. That's what a lawyer is for.


Where can families get help with the costs?

We spent weeks asking around. Here's where we landed.

Who

Will they pay for a lawyer at the inquest?

Legal aid

Maybe, but it's means-tested on the applicant's own income and assets, which usually means the surviving partner. In 2025 the income cut-off for a single adult with no dependants was about $27,400 a year. Any life insurance or other payout can count against you, and you may have to pay legal aid back.

Victim Assistance Scheme

No. It's for victims of crime, and a suspected suicide sits outside it.

Victim Support

No, but they're there 24/7 with free support after a suicide, including help getting through the coronial process. Well worth a call.

ACC

Not for the inquest. ACC only provides entitlements after a suicide in limited cases, where the death came from an injury ACC already covers, such as a work-related mental injury.

Police Association

Not in our case. When we asked NZPA for help, they told us it fell outside their procedures.

Work and Income

No. There's an income-tested grant for funeral costs, and that's it.

To give you a sense of what the other side can spend: in 2024, RNZ's Checkpoint reported Health New Zealand spent more than $100,000 on lawyers in each of two long-running inquests. Those weren't police cases, but the gap between agencies and families is the same.


Why are more families ringing Blue Hope?

We set Blue Hope up to help injured police officers and paramedics through ACC, rehab and getting back to work. These days, more and more of the calls come from families.


It's usually wives, partners and mums who ring first. They're often the ones who saw something change at home long before anyone at work noticed. And when the worst happens, they find no one agency owns their situation. They get passed around, handed a general email address, told it's someone else's job. A lot of them end up with us.


We call it the second injury: the harm that piles on after the loss, from delays, mixed messages, processes nobody can navigate and families being left out.


Where does the money go?

We believe good help should be paid for properly, so we want to cover an experienced barrister's time and travel rather than rely on goodwill. Blue Hope's putting in our own funds too.


Your donation goes first to the legal representation and coronial costs of the police family whose inquest is coming up. Anything left over goes to other police and paramedic families facing the same process.


Chip in what you can on Givealittle. Donations over $5 qualify for a tax credit. Blue Hope Foundation is a registered charity (CC60610).


Questions people ask us

Can you get legal aid for a coroner's inquest in New Zealand?Yes, but it's means-tested on your own income and assets, and you may have to pay it back. It's worth checking, but many families won't qualify.

Can a family ask questions at an inquest?Yes. Families can take part, and with the coroner's agreement they can question witnesses themselves or through a lawyer.

Does ACC cover a death by suicide?Only in limited cases, where the death came from an injury ACC already covers, such as a work-related mental injury. Even then, ACC doesn't pay for a lawyer at the inquest. Get independent advice.

Why do you keep saying "suspected suicide"?Because the law says so. Under section 71 of the Coroners Act 2006, nobody can publicly call a death a suicide until the coroner has found that it was. Until then, it's a suspected suicide.

Where can a bereaved police family get support?Victim Support is free on 0800 842 846. You can also get in touch with Blue Hope at ar@bluehope.co.nz. We'd rather hear from you early than late.


Need to talk?

If you're in the job and things are getting heavy, please talk to someone today. You don't have to wait until it's a crisis.

Free call or text 1737 any time, or ring Lifeline on 0800 543 354. In an emergency, call 111.

Where we got our information

 
 

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