LAO Lawyer Satisfaction Survey 2019 results
Published: February 6, 2020
Published: January 2020
1. Background & methodology
The Lawyer Satisfaction Survey is an annual survey administered by LAO to seek opinions and feedback from private bar lawyers about their experience with LAO.
LAO uses this information to measure overall lawyer satisfaction with different areas of service and identify areas for improvement.
- Target population: All lawyers who were paid for certificate or duty counsel work in the previous year—3,950 individuals in 2019.
- Survey period: October 7 to 20, 2019
- Survey mode: online
- Total responses: 706
- Response rate: 18 per cent
- Non-response was accounted for by weighting
- Margin of error from non‑response is ±3 per cent
2. Summary of findings
Rated most positively:
- Staff services
- Online services
- Pride in doing legal aid work
Rated least positively:
- Billing and payment (billing process, fairness)
- Future legal aid work
3. Overall satisfaction with LAO
Questionnaire statement:
“Overall, I was satisfied with my relationship with LAO.”
Compared to 2018, overall satisfaction dropped by 9 percentage points.
This represents a 14 percentage point drop in satisfaction from 2015 (57 per cent to 43 per cent).
4. Satisfaction with LAO’s billing / payment
Questionnaire statement:
“Overall, I was satisfied with billing and payment at LAO”
| Drivers of Payment/Billing | ||
|---|---|---|
| % Positive | 2018 | 2019 |
| Billing process | 38% | ↓ 30% |
| Pay time | 40% | ↓ 24% |
| Pay fairness | 30% | ↓ 23% |
| Drivers of Payment/Billing | ||
|---|---|---|
| % Negative | 2018 | 2019 |
| Billing process | 36% | ↑ 45% |
| Pay time | 38% | ↑ 55% |
| Pay fairness | 45% | ↑ 58% |
Twenty four per cent of lawyers expressed a positive view of the billing process and speed of payments. Twenty one per cent say they are “fair.”
5. Satisfaction with LAO’s staff services*
Questionnaire statement:
“Overall, I was satisfied with the quality of service”
| Drivers of staff service satisfaction | ||
|---|---|---|
| % Positive | 2018 | 2019 |
| Time it took to get service | 67% | ↓ 63% |
| Accessibility | 68% | ↓ 65% |
| Knowledge | 75% | ↓ 71% |
| Courteous | 81% | ↓ 80% |
| Extra mile | 63% | ↓ 58% |
| Got what I needed | 69% | ↓ 65% |
Although the satisfaction with staff services has decreased in 2019, it remains within historical levels and the highest rated aspect of LAO’s services.
*Staff services is defined as any interaction with LAO staff whether in person, by phone or email.
6. Satisfaction with LAO’s online services*
Questionnaire statement:
“Overall, I was satisfied with the quality of service”
| Drivers of online service satisfaction | ||
|---|---|---|
| % Positive | 2018 | 2019 |
| Accessibility | 63% | ↓ 62% |
| Ability to find what I was looking for | 51% | ↓ 47% |
| Ease of use | 53% | ↓ 49% |
| Got what I needed | 64% | ↓ 62% |
Satisfaction with online services has decreased in 2019, a third decrease in four years.
*Online services are LAO’s online resources for lawyers—primarily the billing portal and LAO’s public website.
7. Future legal aid work
Questionnaire statement:
“Compared to last year, how much work do you intend to do next year”*
*(paraphrased)
A significant change was observed in the amount of lawyers who are planning to take less legal aid work next year.
The amount of lawyers expressing that they will do ‘less work’ has increased from 21 per cent in 2018 to 32 per cent in 2019.
8. Pride in legal aid work
Questionnaire statement:
“Overall, I felt proud to do legal aid work”
One of the most positive scores in the survey is relating to the lawyers’ pride in doing legal aid work.
Based on additional context found in written comments, lawyers are proud of and passionate about helping vulnerable and low‑income clients.
9. Comment themes
Survey comments help to provide an important context to the quantitative results of any survey. The survey offered three opportunities for each respondent to provide a comment:
- Additional thoughts on billing and payment.
- Explanation of the lawyer’s assessment of their relationship with LAO.
- Opportunity to elaborate on any previous responses or share additional thoughts.
Overall, 819 comments were submitted, and 440 lawyers provided at least one comment.
The most common themes from the comments were:
- Improving the availability and user-friendliness of the online billing portal
- Reducing the administrative requirements related to billing for legal aid work
- Reducing the time it takes for LAO to process payment for legal aid work
- Positive feedback about LAO’s research services (LAO Law)
- Uncertainty about whether discretionary requests will be approved and the time it takes for LAO to process the requests