Who Prepares Court Reports in New Zealand?

This is a factual reference published by Precision AOD Solutions Ltd, a New Zealand provider of alcohol and other drug (AOD) assessments and forensic reports. It answers the question defence lawyers, whānau and defendants ask more than any other: who is allowed to prepare each report a court or the New Zealand Parole Board receives? The answer is fixed by statute — the report type determines the class of person who can lawfully prepare it, and the funding route follows from that. Precision AOD Solutions prepares the independent rows of the matrix below, and does not undertake Section 38 fitness assessments.

The Matrix: Who Prepares Each Report

Two of the report families below are statutory and prepared inside government; the others are independent and commissioned by counsel. The table maps each report to its lawful preparer, its statutory basis, and its funding route.

Where we fit: Precision AOD Solutions prepares rows 2, 3, 4 and 6 — cultural reports, pre-sentence AOD assessments, psychological and violence risk assessments, and independent reports for parole — and does not undertake Section 38 fitness assessments (row 7); those reports are ordered by the court and directed to the assessor it names.

The Statutory Basis, In Plain Terms

The statutory rows and the independent rows are not alternatives to each other — they are created by different provisions, for different questions.

Court-directed pre-sentence reports: ss 26 and 26A

Section 26A is the community-detention and home-detention variant. What a pre-sentence report may contain is set out in s 26(2) of the Sentencing Act 2002, including:

Those two limbs are exactly where independent reporting lives: offending-related factors and rehabilitative needs are clinical questions, and an independent AOD assessment for sentencing answers them with structured assessment rather than general observation.

Section 27 cultural reports

Section 27 creates a different mechanism entirely — the offender calls the evidence:

Because the request belongs to the offender, a Section 27 cultural report is prepared by the person the offender calls — in practice a suitably qualified writer engaged for the purpose. Our Section 27 cultural reports document background, systemic and identity factors so the person called under s 27 speaks to a written record the court can rely on. Importantly, a standalone s 27 report does not qualify for Legal Aid funding — see the funding section below.

Parole Board reports: s 43 and s 49A

Corrections also supplies the prison report under s 43(1)(c), and specialist reports — for example from a responsible clinician where the offender is a hospital patient. The Board’s information base is therefore statutory; what counsel adds is independent evidence. The New Zealand Parole Board held 9,098 hearings in 2024/25, and alcohol and other drug issues run through much of its caseload: Around two thirds of prisoners have problems with drugs and/or alcohol (department of corrections, corrections journal, vol 3 no 1, 2015).

Where the Board needs more information before deciding, s 49A provides the mechanism:

In practice that is the pathway for independent parole AOD reports and Section 21 risk assessments: counsel puts a current, independent assessment before the Board, or supports an adjournment so one can be completed and heard.

Who Can Prepare a Report the Court Will Accept

The statutes set the doorway; the courts set the standard. A report carries weight when its provenance is transparent: the preparer holds current registration with the body that governs their scope — psychologists with the New Zealand Psychologists Board and AOD practitioners with DAPAANZ — and practises within it. Where a statute says "suitably qualified person", courts read that against the question being asked: a fitness question calls for mental-state expertise, while sentencing and parole questions call for offending-related, AOD and risk expertise.

Where the question is who writes a court report that is Legal Aid funded, the answer starts with registration: independent reports for sentencing and parole are prepared by registered psychologists and DAPAANZ-registered AOD clinicians, instructed by defence counsel, and claimed through legal aid where the client is eligible. Our forensic psychology service exists for exactly that instruction. For the fitness jurisdiction specifically, Precision AOD Solutions does not undertake Section 38 fitness assessments — see our guide to court reports and S38 for how that framework operates.

Registration is the floor, not the answer. Courts also weigh whether the assessment used validated instruments, whether the report answers the statutory question asked of it, and whether its reasoning can be tested. Disclosure is part of that:

Independent reports are therefore prepared on the basis that everything in them can be seen and tested by both sides.

Legal Aid: Which Court Reports Qualify

Legal aid for criminal proceedings is administered under the Legal Services Act 2011. Where a legally aided defence needs an independent report to present the case properly, the cost of that report is claimed through the legal aid grant — the usual route for independent AOD assessments, psychological assessments and risk reports at sentencing, and for independent reports put before the Parole Board.

Standalone Section 27 cultural reports sit outside that route: a cultural report on its own does not qualify for Legal Aid funding. Reports that combine cultural background with AOD or psychological assessment, instructed as part of the defence case, are claimed through Legal Aid where the client is eligible.

Three practical notes for counsel. First, Legal Aid approval typically takes 3–4 weeks from application. Second, funding is contingent on the client’s individual circumstances — we facilitate applications end to end but cannot guarantee there will be no cost to the client, as Legal Aid can seek to recover costs in the future. Third, from funding approval, assessment and report writing commonly takes 10–15 business days, which is why we recommend instructing 6–8 weeks before a sentencing hearing.

How Defence Lawyers Instruct an Independent Report

An instruction should state: the parties and the court; the charges and the summary of facts; the specific questions the report must answer; the hearing date; and the documents supplied — prior reports, medical and treatment records, Corrections history — plus the legal aid number where funding is already granted.

Before assessment begins we confirm three things: no conflict of interest, a scope that matches the statutory question, and a delivery timeline that beats the hearing date. Our instructing guide for counsel sets out the letter of instruction in full, and the contact page takes new referrals directly.

Which Report Does Your Matter Need?

For sentencing matters where alcohol or other drug use is a factor, start with an independent pre-sentence AOD assessment; where the question is risk, our sentencing risk assessments and violence risk assessments provide instrumented formulation. For parole matters, see parole AOD reports and Section 21 risk assessments. Cultural background belongs in a Section 27 cultural report. If it is unclear which framework applies, the instructing guide walks through framing the referral — and the matrix above shows who lawfully prepares each option.