Outcomes Measurement Project

Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma - 040039

Abstract Number: 040039

April 2004

Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma (LASO) developed an outcomes measurement project to determine how LASO's services impacted their clients' lives. The Tulsa Area United Way provided LASO with a grant to fund an OutcomesMeasurement Training as well as a consultant who worked with a LASO team during 2003. With this grant, LASO developed a logic model based on a United Way model to measure outcomes, an outcome measurement framework, questionnaires, and procedures. In the past year, LASO field-tested the outcome measurement plan and tools in a series of phone based interviews with clients after the clients received a variety of services ranging from advice to extended services cases.

Instead of using case closing codes to measure outcomes, LASO found it was beneficial to measure outcomes in terms of service categories. As indicated in the project description, LASO categorized their services into the following three categories:

1. Tools which LASO defines as "giving a client advice, information, self-help (pro se) materials or forms that the client needs to understand possible options and/or to address their legal problems on their own."
2. Transactions which LASO defines as "non-advocacy legal work such as drafting documents (i.e. wills and contracts)."
3. Representation which LASO defines as "advocacy on behalf of a client with or without litigation, such as negotiation with a landlord, appearing in court or administrative hearing."

These categories helped LASO measure outcomes in terms of the services provided from a client's perspective. To gather data on outcomes, LASO staff and select attorneys were asked to interview clients who had recently received services from LASO. This process of gathering feedback from clients proved to be an instructive process as LASO staff and volunteers had the opportunity to hear firsthand, both the client's positive and negative feedback. Since completing the initial stage of the outcomes process, LASO has received a second grant to continue funding this project from the United Way of Central Oklahoma. This new grant allows the consultant to continue working with LASO through the end of 2004. To learn more about this project, access the outcomes document and PowerPoint presentation below.

Contact Information:

Gary W. Dart
Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma
Director of Litigation and Field Services
423 South Boulder, Suite 200
Tulsa, OK 74103-3814
Phone (918) 295-9416
Fax (918) 584-3060
gary.dart@legalaidok.org

Additional Information:

• Gary W. Dart, Esq. and Denise Caudill, DrPH, "Outcome Measurement: Assessing Client's Perspectives of the Impact of Legal Aid Services in their Lives," Conference Handout, Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, 2004. ( 206k)
• Gary W. Dart, Esq. and Denise Caudill, DrPH, "Outcome Measurement: Assessing Clients' Perspectives of the Impact of Legal Aid Services in their Lives," Presentation for the Equal Justice Conference, April 2004. (PPT, 1.4mb)

back to top ^