Legal Aid in the Netherlands: Quality Assurance Conference in Lithuania

1. Quality assurance in The Netherlands EU conference Lithuania 23 November 2017 Herman Schilperoort Dutch Legal Aid Board

2. How is legal aid provided in the Netherlands? • Through the first line providers: Legal Services Counters, public providers for first advice. Free of contribution. • Through the second line providers: private lawyers and mediators for extended consultation and assistance in court. Criminal cases are only handled by lawyers. • In addition LAB arranges a duty solicitors scheme for custody cases: suspects, immigrants, mental health patients. In case of custody legal aid is granted without costs. • Free choice of lawyer. • In 2017 7400 private lawyers handled legal aid cases. • Criminal cases: 3000 lawyers, juvenile cases: 1500, 90 % participates in duty solicitors schemes

3. Secondary line: lawyers • Lawyers receive fixed fees for different types of services. • Detailed fixed fee scheme, different types of cases are scored with points. • Exceptions (remuneration on hourly base) only in very complicated criminal cases, exceeding three times the average time spent. Lawyer needs to approve complexity to the LAB, detailed estimation of extra time needed. • Fee scheme was evaluated by Committee Van der Meer: • Fees do not longer correspond with time spent • To reduce costs, more and more lawyers work in small practices • This development can influence quality in a negative way

4. Secondary line: lawyers • After the case is finished lawyer fills in his declaration in web-portal • Hourly rate: euro 105.61 per point • In the past: 10 % extra payment when the law-firm conducted a quality audit (voluntarily) • Since 2005 all lawyers have to conduct an audit, organized by the Dutch Bar Association. Extra payment was integrated in hourly rates

5. Which qualitymeasures are taken?

6. Reasons to invest in quality • reliability: users of legal aid must be able to trust the system • value for money: interest government, tax payers • necessity for accountability: LAB monitors quality of services and reports to Ministry and Parliament

7. Providing quality is a shared responsibility • Dutch Bar Association • Legal Aid Board (LAB) • First of all: own responsibility lawyers • Emergence of lawyer-specialist associations: criminal area NVSA/NVJSA • Necessity for cooperation to develop standards and procedures, with important role for lawyer specialist associations

8. Conditions for lawyers to work for LAB • Lawyers must be member of the Dutch Bar Association • Lawyers must fulfil conditions set by the Bar for basic registration • Above this lawyers must agree with additional conditions for registration set by the LAB • LAB has developed a variation of additional conditions for some fields: extra training, experience, membership specialisation-association, peer review

9. LAB: additional conditions for registration Specialized legal areas/cases: • Family law • International child abduction • Criminal law • Juvenile delinquency • Victim cases • Asylum law • Immigration law • Mental health law

10. Quality measures by the Bar for all lawyers • Traineeship: three years • Audit by the Bar Association • Take part in permanent education and training (20 points a year), as a minimum • Disciplinary proceedings, special courts

11. Bar audit Organization of the office: • Management files: well ordered, accessibility, confidentiality guaranteed? • Staff members: is a signed confidentiality agreement present? • How is insured that time limits are not exceeded? • Is a regulation for substitution in case of absence present?

12. Bar audit Relationship with clients: • Use of standard confirmation letter: • Estimation of achievability of the client’s wishes • Estimation of financial consequences for the client when accepting the case • Registration of working hours and costs

13. Bar audit Quality management: • How is knowledge system organized? • Member of lawyer specialist-association? • Does the office take part – yet on a voluntarily base - in peer learning or peer review? • Does the office conduct customer satisfaction surveys by itself?

14. Additional conditions for registration by LAB • Maximum amount of cases: 250 • Maximum amount of billing hours: 2000 • Prohibition of billing other fees than the client’s own contribution and court fees • Obligation to follow Best Practice Guidelines, if available • Criminal cases: Dutch Bar Association only defined rules in relation to the assistance of arrested suspects in the first stadium of police interrogation, including a checklist • Obligation to take part in peer learning and peer review, if applicable. Asylum and immigration cases • Criminal cases: no organized system for peer review in practice

15. LAB: additional registration conditions for criminal cases • Extra basic training • Obligation to handle a minimum of 10 cases per year • Obligation to take part in permanent education (follow courses at a minimum level of 12 points per year)

16. Good practice: Best Practice Guides • Initiative of LAB and the Bar, mostly paid for by the LAB • Developed by lawyers • Checklist for lawyers: what is good practice? • Checklist for peer learning, peer review and customer satisfaction surveys

17. Best Practice Guides Minimum standards for handling of cases. Examples: • Acquired knowledge • Communication with clients: use of simple language • Use of interpreters and translation of documents • Instructions: • how to monitor deadlines and time limits • how to proceed before the court • how to inform a client after court session • Information about a possible second opinion

18. Peer review LAB developed in the past peer review system for: • Asylum cases • Immigration cases • LAB is supporter off broad implementation • According to jurisprudence peer review needs formal basis in legislation, this hinders further developments • For criminal cases there is no organized system in practice

19. Peer review procedure Possible method: • Peer studies five files • Peer scores whether minimum standards are fulfilled • Four out of five files have to meet the standards • Possibility of a second review

20. Assuring and monitoring system quality • Management-agreements LAB/Bar • Monitor client satisfaction • Report on quality • Monitor which measurements are planned • Are they brought into practice? • Monitor results measurements • How many controls or peer reviews were undertaken? • How many lawyers succeeded or failed?

21. Client’s satisfaction

22. More information Dutch system • Broad outline • https://www.rvr.org/english