PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, Monash University.
Associate Professor, Monash Sustainable Development Institute and Faculty of Law, Monash University.
J Law Med. 2022 Mar;29(1):156-172.
Legal services can play a critical role in facilitating claimant access to entitlements and shaping claimant experiences and outcomes in compensation settings. However, much remains unknown about claimants' goals in engaging legal services, experiences of using legal services, and satisfaction with legal advisers. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with claimants in the road traffic injury compensation scheme in the State of Victoria, Australia, this article identified that most claimants engaged legal services to access entitlements when they struggled to do so alone. Claimants often had little understanding of the activities performed by their lawyers: despite this, most viewed legal service use as valuable or worthwhile in terms of outcomes achieved. Claimants' experiences and levels of satisfaction were coloured by the quantity and quality of communication between themselves and their legal representatives. The findings highlight opportunities for schemes, lawyers, and legal profession regulators to increase the responsiveness of services to claimants' needs.
法律服务在帮助申请人获得应享权利、塑造其在赔偿环境中的体验和结果方面可以发挥关键作用。然而，对于申请人在寻求法律服务时的目标、使用法律服务的体验以及对法律顾问的满意度，我们仍知之甚少。本文通过对澳大利亚维多利亚州道路交通伤害赔偿计划中的申请人进行半结构化访谈发现，大多数申请人在独自难以获得应享权利时会寻求法律服务。申请人通常对律师的工作内容了解甚少：尽管如此，大多数人认为法律服务在实现成果方面具有价值或意义。申请人的体验和满意度受到他们与法律代表之间沟通的数量和质量的影响。研究结果突显了计划、律师和法律行业监管机构有机会提高服务对申请人需求的响应能力。
