Legal Aid BC partners with OXD to improve access to justice for family law applicants

Legal Aid BC (LABC) provides a range of services that help low income families resolve their legal problems. These services include serious family, child protection, criminal law, and immigration matters. Previously, LABC partnered with OXD to support projects to improve the delivery of public legal education and information. So, we were thrilled to partner with them again to help identify opportunities to better support the needs of their clients. The project aims to increase accessibility for diverse communities and provide flexible options in the applicant intake process for legal aid.

Illustration of client and LABC support person talking over the phone

Developing a deep understanding of Legal Aid BC users and stakeholders required multidisciplinary thinking.

This discovery project sought to understand all of LABC’s users and stakeholders, with the goal of modernizing the legal aid intake process. We were able to uncover critical insights based on users’ expressed needs and interests—framed around their input through workshops and testing at every stage of the development process. The broad and diverse range of feedback came from participants across BC and included LABC clients, Frontline workers, Indigenous People, Native Courtworkers, lawyers, and other stakeholders and partner organizations. We also reached out to other similar service providers across the globe for insight into their intake processes and technologies.

We assembled dozens of user-centred design recommendations to make online intake a reality.

Our research generated 1,131 insights that highlighted gaps in the intake process, could improve feelings of safety and wellbeing, shaped the design of a prototype for the online client intake form, and improved the overall client experience.

We will help Legal Aid BC meet users where they are, in their spaces, and in the manner of their choosing.

We want to help LABC meet users where they are by increasing accessibility services. The intake process addresses safety features so applicants can feel safer applying in their own spaces and in the manner of their choosing. A new client portal will provide better support and resources for legal aid applicants while improving internal efficiencies for LABC. 

We’re proud to have helped LABC reimagine their service model and ensure equal access to justice for all family law applicants.

Learn more about our discovery process on other projects by reading our Online Divorce Assistant Application case study, which talks about our work with the Ministry of the Attorney General of British Columbia.