Burnaby, British Columbia Experimental Public Defender Project An Evaluation, Report Four - Client Satisfaction Analysis

• NCJ Number: 92219
• Author(s): P L Brantingham; R Corrado
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 55 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Canada Department of Justice
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services; Canada Dept of Justice
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: Canada
• Note: Report on work undertaken with the assistance of British Columbia Legal Services Society

Annotation

Clients of a public defender project in Burnaby, British Columbia, had similar levels of satisfaction to clients of the judicare model of legal aid services, in which private lawyers were paid a fee for their services.

Abstract

The public defense office operated during 1979 and 1980 under the auspices of the Legal Services Society of British Columbia. Client satisfaction was measured along four dimensions: client feelings about the lawyer's performance; client feelings about the verdict or sentence; client assessment of the lawyer's legal ability, case preparation, time spent on the case, ability to communicate, motivation, and personal interest in the client; and client assessment of how well or poorly the lawyer represented the client's interests. Study data came from interviews with 101 clients of judicare and public defense clients. Client satisfaction did not markedly vary between the judicare or public defender lawyers. The results contradict both conventional wisdom and a number of observations made in similar studies in the United States, where public defender clients were less satisfied than were judicare clients. A summary of the results of the evaluation of the entire project is included. For evaluations of other aspects of the same program, see NCJ 92218 and 92220.