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Listening to our customers
LISTENING TO LEGAL AID USERS In 2003/2004 we conducted a survey which looked at what people who had experienced the legal aid system thought about it, and how well it had worked for them. Surveys were sent to almost 5,000 people who had used advice and assistance, civil or criminal legal aid, as well as opponents in civil cases and people who made contributions or payments for civil assistance. The findings contained a wide range of information about the legal aid system. 85% of people who have had experience of legal aid would recommend the legal aid system to a friend. Almost two thirds of people surveyed were positive about their experience of the quality of the legal aid service, but 17% thought it was worse than expected, and 20% had no expectations or didn’t know. Two thirds of people said they were satisfied with how long it took the Board to make a decision about their application. Changes have resulted from the views people gave on how things can be improved. Easier access to the Board, quicker times to process applications and clearer and simpler information on costs were the three main ideas people gave us when we asked for their suggestions for improving the legal aid service. Making payments of contributions towards the costs of legal aid was one particular area that people found hard to understand. Since the survey, we have increased and improved the information available and increased our performance targets for processing applications. People in the survey were generally positive about their solicitor’s service: 76% were satisfied with how their solicitor handled their case, with only 14% expressing dissatisfaction. Since the survey, we have increased our performance targets for processing applications. We are working on making more changes, and will keep using surveys to listen and respond to people’s views. KEY RESULTS
LISTENING TO SOLICITORS To provide a quality legal aid service, the Board must work effectively with solicitors. That’s why we use surveys as part of our programme of listening and consulting, to get solicitors’ views on changes we could make to improve both our services and the provision of legal aid. Our 2003 survey found that solicitors are positive about the Board’s services and how they have changed. 79% of solicitors who took part answered positively to a question on how satisfied they were with the Board’s services. When asked to rate recent changes to our overall services, 81% had a positive view. Also, solicitors commented that there were very few areas in which our services had not improved since our previous survey in 2000. The survey gave us a great deal of information about our services and solicitors’ views of the way we run legal aid. Rightly, solicitors are expecting more from us in certain aspects of our service and highlighted some areas where they want to see further developments. We have concentrated our efforts to improve our service in these areas with more developments planned. To help us identify more potential changes, we will ask solicitors for their views again in 2005.
KEY RESULTS
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