To better serve our clients and supporting taxpayers, Legal Aid Ontario has adopted an ambitious vision for quality:

"LAO strives to be a world leader in supporting and assuring excellence in high-quality legal aid services to clients and communities."
  Legal Aid Ontario's Quality Vision

About QSO...

QSO works in partnership with LAO's provincial and area offices, clinics, certificate bar, duty counsel, Student Legal Aid Services Societies and stakeholders in the justice sector on a range of initiatives designed to enhance the quality of service provided to clients.

QSO is responsible for:

• development and monitoring of panel standards for lawyers
• CLE training seminars on DVD, design of a mentoring program, and "Practical Tips" resources from expert practitioners to assist lawyers in providing quality legal services to clients
• as required, on-site visits of clinics to ensure best practices
• supporting clinic knowledge transfer and sharing of best practices
• a system of self-assessment that holds the clinics and SLASS to a high standard of best practices
• measurement of satisfaction levels of service deliverers
• measurement of access to justice outcomes
• development and implementation of a Performance Measures Framework for Legal Aid Ontario
• process mapping activities provided to LAO’s departments to facilitate identification and establishment of more efficient processes to serve clients and stakeholders
• co-ordinate the clinic staff and board learning and development program, in co-operation with the joint clinic - LAO Provincial Learning Action Committee (PLAC).

To contact the (QSO) Quality Service Office, please contact Sherry Cameron-Stobie at cameros@lao.on.ca.

Principles

1. Client Focus

• QSO activities must contribute to the improvement of legal aid services for clients.
• QSO measures satisfaction levels of clients.
• QSO measures satisfaction levels of service providers to ensure provision of quality service to clients.

2. Working in Partnership

QSO works in partnership with staff, service providers, and stakeholders, to develop and implement quality initiatives that respond to the needs of clients.

3. Statutory Mandate for Quality

Under the provisions of the Legal Aid Services Act, LAO is obligated to "establish a quality assurance program to ensure that it is providing high quality legal services in a cost-effective and efficient manner" (Section 92(1)). This is achieved through LAO panel standards, supports, best practices and measurement.

4. Respect and Trust

• QSO recognizes staff and service providers' commitment to excellence, integrity, and the well-being of clients.
• QSO respects professional independence in decision-making and service delivery.
• QSO respects solicitor-client confidentiality and privilege.

5. Continuous Improvement

Excellence is not an absolute state but a dynamic process that is continually evolving. While performance measurement focuses on indicators of efficiency and effectiveness, the goal is continuous improvement.

Core Business

"Core Business" refers to the primary services QSO provides to LAO staff, clinics and SLASS, area offices and service providers in their efforts to continuously improve service quality.

Panel Standards

• clarifying LAO's expectations of duty counsel and the certificate panel lawyers
• developing transparent, objective standards for duty counsel and certificate lawyers

Annual Common Measurements Tool Surveys

• acquiring valuable feedback from clients regarding ‘access to justice’, and provide an opportunity for lawyers, duty counsel, and clinics to provide LAO with feedback

Best Practices for Clinics and SLASS

• conducting clinic and SLASS site visits and quality reviews
• developing and analyzing comprehensive self-assessment tools that hold clinics and SLASS to a high standards of best practices

Supports to Improve Quality Legal Services for Clients

• CLE training seminars on DVD
• mentoring program
• "Practical Tips" documents in areas of law

Communications

• communications to the LAO community to foster a quality culture
• maintaining information and quality resources on LAO's internet and intranet sites
• making or sponsoring presentations and promotions at conferences and training events

Strategic Information and Analysis

• conducting inter-jurisdictional research and developing contacts to ensure leading edge knowledge

Legal Aid Ontario (LAO), an independent but publicly funded and publicly accountable non-profit corporation. None of this material may be commercially reproduced, but copying for other purposes, with credit, is encouraged.

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