Legal Services
Public Defence Service
The Legal Services Agency employs salaried criminal lawyers to take on criminal legal aid cases in the Auckland and Manukau courts through its Public Defence Service (PDS). If you would like to see a PDS lawyer or discuss a referral to the PDS telephone:
- Auckland CBD Office: (09) 302 1961
- Manukau Office: (09) 261 2501
The PDS began as a pilot scheme in May 2004, and established for the first time in New Zealand a mixed public/private provision of legal aid service delivery. The pilot was formally evaluated by an independent team from the Victoria University of Wellington’s Crime and Justice Research Centre, with a final evaluation completed by an independent consulting company. Click here for the evaluation plan and the pilot reports.
In August 2008 the Agency Board agreed to employ permanent salaried staff at Auckland and Manukau to provide legal services for the same or related purposes as trialled in the PDS pilot. This followed an authorisation to do so by Hon Annette King, Minister of Justice. The authorisation was gazetted on 17 June 2008 and the PDS will be effective permanently from 1 December 2008.
The PDS currently handles approximately 2,400 criminal cases a year in the Auckland and Manukau courts. The service provides high quality legal services and benchmarks value-for-money through the use of salaried staff.
The objectives of the PDS are to:
- Provide high quality, consistent, independent, value for money services to legally aided persons.
- Improve system flexibility and provide opportunities to test different approaches to meeting cultural and other needs of clients.
- Provide opportunities to test new and innovative approaches to the management of legal services, and to encourage the development of areas of expertise.
- Improve the Agency’s understanding of issues facing private practice lawyers when providing legal services to the public by collecting benchmark information.
More detail on PDS is contained in:
Code of Conduct for Public Defence Service Lawyers and Other Public Defence Service Employees (pdf 102kb)
Policies for the Treatment of Granting and Assignment for Public
Defence Service Cases (pdf 106kb)
Piloting a legal aid defence service at the Auckland and Manukau Courts - 2003 (pdf 183kb)
Statement of Service - December 2008 (pdf 207kb)
Evaluation Documents:
Public Defence Service Pilot: Value for Money Review Report (Commissioned by Ministry of Justice) – March 2009 (pdf 202 kb)
Public Defence Service pilot evaluation: FINAL Report – May 2008 (pdf 230kb)
Public Defence Service pilot evaluation: Third Interim Report – February 2008 (pdf 1241kb)
Public Defence Service pilot evaluation: Second Interim Report – May 2007 (pdf 668kb)
Public Defence Service pilot evaluation: Interim Report One – August 2005 (pdf 367kb)
For more information about the pilot or the evaluation contact info@lsa.govt.nz
Assignment reports at the Auckland and Manukau Courts
Reports on the PDS against its Statement of Service
Period ending 31 March 2008 (pdf 24kb)
Period ending 31 October 2007 (pdf 30kb)
Period ending 30 June 2007 (pdf 330kb)
Period ending 28 February 2007 (pdf 27kb)
Period ending 31 October 2006 (pdf 59kb)
Quarter ending 30 June 2006 (pdf 25kb)
Quarter ending 31 March 2006 (pdf 22kb)
Quarter ending 31 December 2005 (pdf 23kb)
Quarter ending 30 September 2005 (pdf 27kb)
Quarter ending 30 June 2005 (pdf 30kb)
Quarter ending 31 March 2005 (pdf 30kb)
Quarter ending 31 December 2004 (pdf 29kb)
Quarter ending 30 September 2004 (pdf 45kb)
