Work Group 5 - Sustaining and Assuring Quality – Final Report

Work Group Charge - Access to justice must be accompanied by a commitment to the quality of the justice provided.  This commitment to quality must be made by the Courts, those providing assistance (legal aid, private bar and non-lawyers), and administrative agencies.  What do we mean by quality?  How do we ensure, measure and report quality?  

Work Group Participants Include:
Mary Toole, Chair; Barbara Raimondi, Vice Chair; Nan Heald; Staff 

Members – Janis Cohen, Jami Collins, Nancy Gibson, David Karraker, Calien Lewis, Jaye Martin, Hon. Dan Wathen

Sustaining and Assuring Quality Final Report

Issue:

The topic for our work group, as it was defined at the retreat beginning the JAG planning process, was stated as:

"Access to justice must be accompanied by a commitment to the quality of the justice provided. This commitment to quality must be made by the Courts, those providing assistance (legal aid, private bar and non-lawyers), and administrative agencies. What do we mean by quality? How do we ensure, measure and report quality?"

Statement of Values:

Sustaining and assuring quality requires a common understanding of quality. We urge the JAG to recommend adoption of the proposed Statement of Values for Maine’s Civil Justice System to all participants in the civil justice system.  The proposed values arose from an analysis of standards adopted in other states, criteria used by civil legal service providers nationwide, and standards adopted by the American Bar Association.  Consistent application of the proposed values by all participants in the Maine civil justice system would improve the quality of civil justice in Maine.

Modified ABA Survey:

In order to assess current services in Maine, Maine’s civil legal services providers, who are also annual grantees of the Maine Bar Foundation, completed a modified version of the self-assessment tool for civil legal service providers originally prepared by the American Bar Association. The survey was intended to “count” represented litigants and types of issues handled by the civil legal service providers.  This survey could be extended  to include other entities in the civil justice system, however, definitions of types of cases and how case numbers are counted should be refined for more meaningful results. 

The survey demonstrates a gap in services for incarcerated and institutionalized individuals, points to needed improvement in cultural diversity,  and needed improvement in communication and collaboration among the participants involved in the civil legal justice system.

Template:

We traced a legal problem through the civil justice system from problem to resolution. We focused on the problem of child custody and other issues of minor children of unmarried parents, especially teenage parents. A template is attached showing the legal issue, current standards, proposed benchmarks, responsible party or parties, and the values from the proposed Statement of Values that would apply. This template can be used, or adapted, to all civil legal issues to produce consistent compliance with the proposed Statement of Values.

Recommendations:

The attached Executive Summary contains the recommendations of Work Group 5.  Considerations that were used in reaching these recommendations included the feeling that better communication with all of the stakeholders in the civil justice system could change the experience for litigants. For example, if a state agency has information it could share with the others in the civil justice system, with appropriate privacy protections, time consuming inefficiencies could be eliminated. It is likely that legislative changes that would permit exchange of information by social service agencies with the court, when the appropriate releases are signed, would facilitate court filings by allowing the agency to directly provide information to the court. In cases involving unmarried parents, timely orders establishing paternity, child support and parental rights, would result in the least harm to the children.

Many of the participants in the civil justice system have been working on their own standards to improve quality.  The SJC has adopted case completion standards to establish time frames for completion of cases, which vary by nature of the case. In matters involving parental rights, the SJC established three time periods; 75% of all decisions should be completed within 6 months; 90% within 9 months; and 99% within 12 months. The court is collecting information on the effectiveness of the case completion standards.

Among the other issues being addressed by the court are limited language proficiency, civility in the courts, and promotion of education for litigants. There are procedures for oversight and filing of grievances used by the Maine Administrative Office of the Courts – Office of Court ADR.

As noted previously, the ABA  and the Legal Services Corporation  have worked on standards and criteria for performance of legal service providers. The work is extensive and collaborative and we recommend providers in Maine adopt those guidelines.  Funders should be sensitive to the commitment to performance standards when awarding grants.

A commitment by all of the participants in the civil justice system to the Proposed Statement of Values, which has begun at many levels for participants already and whose efforts we applaud, would lead to consistent application of justice and to timely and fair outcomes. 

Commentary:

Questions raised at the retreat in March of 2006 on sustaining and assuring quality are not fully answered by this report. Many tools for assessing quality exist for the individual participants in the civil justice system but no uniform agreement as to what constitutes quality exists for the entire system. Value 12 of the proposed Statement of Values states that “All aspects of the civil justice system will be administered uniformly.” Adoption of the Statement of Values, or a similar set of standards could lead to uniformity, not only on the definition of quality, but on methods of measuring quality.

Ongoing efforts by the JAG to create a process to effectively assess the system’s performance in relation to a standardized statement of values should be initiated. To the extent that critical data are not available, strategies to capture this information should be developed over time.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Work Group on Sustaining and Assuring Quality has developed the following recommendations as a result of their work over the past 12 month period.  For purposes of this document, “Maine civil justice system” includes both court and administrative proceedings and “Maine civil legal service providers” includes any organization that provides civil legal services.

The following time frame is contemplated for recommendations, although the Work Group recognizes that some recommendations will require ongoing commitment and effort:

Ø   Short-term: Within a year

Ø   Medium-term:  Within 2 – 5 years

Ø   Long-term:  More than 5 years

1.   JAG should endorse the proposed “Statement of Values for Maine’s Civil Justice System” and recommend its adoption to all participants in the civil justice system. This Statement should be widely publicized and used in connection with all JAG activities and initiatives. (short-term)

 2.   The Maine Judicial Branch and Probate Court, as well as  State and local authorities involved in civil justice proceedings should establish written performance guidelines   that address their own services in relation to Maine’s civil justice system and which are consistent with the JAG “Statement of Values.”  These standards should be clear and include benchmarks that allow evaluation of performance to be conducted by appropriate evaluators.  Good examples of such standards exist already, including those developed for the Maryland Department of Family Administration.  (medium – long-term recommendation)

 3.   Maine’s civil legal  service providers should adopt performance guidelines modeled on the ABA Standards for the Provision of Civil Legal Aid adopted by the ABA in August 2006 or the  Legal Service Corporation’s Performance Criteria which have been cross- referenced to the ABA Standards.  These standards should be clear and include benchmarks that allow evaluation of performance to be conducted by appropriate evaluators. (short-term)

 4.   Organizations that provide pro bono legal services in Maine should adopt performance guidelines modeled on the ABA Standards For Programs Providing Civil Pro Bono Legal Services to Persons Of Limited Means, or the LSC  Performance Criteria to insure that pro bono attorney representation is provided consistent with those requirements. These standards should be clear and include benchmarks that allow evaluation of performance to be conducted by appropriate evaluators. (short-term)

 5.   The JAG should take a leadership role in assuring that funders of civil legal services in Maine (including both annual and discretionary funders) are made aware of the commitment to quality that is reflected by the JAG state planning process and by the “Statement of Values” and applicable provider standards. (short-term)

 6.   To the extent appropriate, funders should be encouraged to prioritize those services performed in compliance with the Statement of Values and applicable provider standards. Providers should be prepared to certify to their commitment to those standards to funding entities. (medium-term)

 7.   Governing bodies of civil legal service providers should establish standards of governance and oversight to assure that their boards are satisfying their obligations to provide adequate oversight of each organization’s operations.  Good examples of such standards exist already, including those established for nonprofit organizations by the Better Business Bureau. (medium-term)

8.   To foster more widespread understanding of the legal needs of low-income and other vulnerable populations and the services that are most responsive to those needs, The Maine State Bar Association, in cooperation with the Maine Bar Foundation and the Legal Service Providers, should include in their educational seminars materials specifically targeted to representation of low income, elderly, minority, disabled and other vulnerable populations whose legal needs may differ from the legal needs of the general population. (medium-term)

 9.   All participants in Maine’s civil justice system should initiate a process to determine the availability of data needed to effectively assess the system’s performance in relation to these standards. To the extent that critical data are not available, strategies to capture this information should be developed and implemented over time. (medium to long-term)

 10. Evaluation protocols should be integrated into the civil justice system wherever possible to support continued improvement and focus on the needs of participants in the process.  Many systems already exist, such as the monitoring and grievance procedures used by the Maine Administrative Office of the Courts - Office of Court ADR.  (medium to long-term)

 11. All participants in Maine’s civil justice system must work together to streamline and simplify the resolution of legal needs for Maine citizens.  This commitment needs to be made and sustained at all levels.   Systems for sharing of information by state agencies and the courts, while assuring the continued privacy rights of the litigants, should be created. For example, the birth certificate of a child of unmarried parents should reflect any determination of paternity and should be accepted by the courts when ruling on parental rights and responsibilities. The Justice Action Group should take a leadership role in fostering this cooperation and collaboration.  (long-term)

Statement of Values for Maine’s Civil Justice System

1.      The civil justice system should be attentive to the expressed and unstated legal needs of the client population. 

2.      The civil justice system should treat all persons with dignity and respect, accommodating its services to address barriers posed by such factors as age, economic circumstance, language, disability, culture, or geography. 

3.      The civil justice system should require a commitment to ongoing collaboration and planning among all its participants, with the goal of simplifying/streamlining legal proceedings. 

4.      The civil justice system should require a commitment to ongoing evaluation of individual client experiences by each participant in the system.  

5.      The civil justice system should be subject to assessment systems that go beyond a simple counting of individual services/cases and include input and feedback from clients as well as other participants. 

6.      The civil justice system should promote fair outcomes achieved in a timely manner. 

7.      Providers within the civil justice system should provide zealous and competent  representation designed to achieve an optimal result for the client in a timely manner. 

8.      Accurate, “plain English” information about the civil justice system and its legal rights should be broadly accessible to all Maine people in schools, libraries, courts, and at home.  To the extent that participants in the civil justice provide this information online, they should insure that postings are updated and remain accurate. 

9.      The civil justice system and its representatives/participants should be aware of and sensitive to the special challenges faced by low-income and other vulnerable client population.  (e.g., court procedures/hearing officers should be attuned to potential problems with domestic violence or language barriers and make needed accommodations where those problems are presented.) 

10.  The civil justice system should work towards the goal of insuring that all persons requiring legal assistance have access to counsel if needed, and will support fair results for those who do not. 

11.  The demographic composition of the civil justice system should reflect the composition of the communities whose civil legal needs are being addressed.