A Practical Model For Demonstrating And Ensuring Quality Legal Aid Services: A Case Study In Applied Research

Abstract

This paper is about how the Legal Aid Commission of the Australian Capital Territory (Legal Aid ACT) - a relatively small legal aid provider with an annual budget of $12 million and 65 staff - has gone about measuring the effectiveness of its services and how it plans to measure service efficiency. These are highly topical issues in Australia at present because of a national review of legal assistance services that is due for completion in June 2013. The paper is both a case study in applied research (how researchers and administrators can work together to improve legal aid services) and a practical demonstration of the value that individual agencies can gain from measuring service quality and effectiveness. The paper also considers a hypothesis that if the characteristics of a quality service responsive to people’s needs are present then the service is also likely to be cost-effective.