Evaluation

National Conference on Community Based Access to Justice

February 20, 2004

Bonnie Hough

•The point of evaluation is to improve services for the public you serve

Need both Quantitative and Qualitative Information

Quantitative

- # of services, who’s being served

- how much time is saved on court procedures

Qualitative

- customer satisfaction

- Community, judicial, court staff perspective

Evaluation as a service

• AARP model – follow up calls to people using hotline – take

those who are just “satisfied” and provide follow up services

• Sonoma Self Help Access Center – interviews with the partners about how the

program is going, clarify expectations, make adjustments

How to figure out what to change?

• Neighborhood Legal Services focus groups

• Alaska Family Law Self Help Hotline and website

• I-CAN! evaluation – usage data, judges,

Getting Started – Program Logic Model

• Figure out what you are trying to achieve with your service

• Think about how you’ll know when you get there, are there markers along the way

• Think about how to measure that – evaluation toolkit has lots of good ideas

• Assess what you can do – think about starting with a sample

Example

• Customer satisfaction – think about what you want to know about who’s using your service and how they feel about it

• Look at existing tools – save time, allow comparisons

• Try it for a week or a month – try to get EVERYONE to do it

• Analyze data • Determine how to respond to information

6 Questions

• Increased access to justice

• Increased understanding of, and compliance with court orders

• Increased user satisfaction with court process

6 questions

• Increased efficiency and effectiveness of the court system

• Increased education for court users so that their expectations are reasonable in light of the law and facts

• Increased likelihood of “just” results in cases involving self-represented litigants

Resources

• Evaluation Toolkit – www.pic.org/toolkits.htm

• Legal Services Website evaluationwww.lri.lsc.gov/sitepages/tech/

Legal Workstation Overview

http://www.lstech.org/TIG/eval/legal_workstation_tools.html

TCRIC Resources

Trial Court Research and Improvement Consortium

Self-Represented Litigants Programs Assessment Tool

The Tool

• Outline for a “quick and clean” evaluation

• Contains a list of recommended “best practices,” including collaboration with legal services programs

• Intended for use with a one week site visit

• Suitable for self assessment or outside assessment

Model data gathering instruments

• 7 instruments

• Standard demographic data

• Litigant program exit, litigant court exit, and in court observation surveys for both judges and courtroom observers

• Judge, court staff, and lawyer surveys

Current SJI-funded Project

• Funded to the Maryland Administrative Office of the Courts

• Eleven pilot courts– Five in Maryland– Hennepin County– Maricopa County– Miami/Dade County– Alaska Family Law Self Help Center– LA and Orange Counties (self-assessments)

Current SJI-funded Project

• Data to be presented on the National Center for State Courts website for purposes of benchmarking programs to assist self-represented litigants

• To be completed by this summer