The public defense office was established in Burnaby during 1979 and 1980 to determine the feasibility of introducing staff criminal defense offices in the Province. The cost analysis considered the average costs of delivering services, costs under alternative work loads, costs under expected fee and salary increases, and the fee-equivalent costs for services delivered by staff. When eligibility assessment did not include an interview, the costs per case were $7 lower for public defense cases, $17 less for judicare cases in Burnaby, and $11 less for judicare cases in Vancouver. Under expected fee and salary increases, the staff model of delivering legal aid was competitive with the judicare model for 1 to 2 years after a fee increase of 38 percent. In the third year, the judicare model was less expensive. The main cost advantage of the public defense system occurred in criminal justice system costs. Clients of the public defense attorneys were sentenced to jail less often than were judicare clients. Overall, the public defense system cost less than the judicare mode. Savings in the costs of correctional institutions may be as large as $200,000 for every 1,000 simple legal aid cases handled by public defense counsel rather than judicare counsel. Data tables, a summary of the evaluation of the entire project, and appendixes presenting background information and additional study data are provided. For evaluations of other aspects of the same program, see NCJ 92219-20.