What Do Criminal Clients Think Of Their Lawyers? And Does It Matter? The Empirical Contribution To The Debate

Abstract

This paper looks at the empirical findings on client views from several common law jurisdictions and draws on recent qualitative and quantitative research among criminal clients in Edinburgh. It asks first how clients judge their lawyers, and secondly, how far client perceptions matter. Differing models of professionalism clearly place quite different emphases on client views. Finally, it asks, if client satisfaction does matter, how can lawyers be trained to improve it?