ABSTRACT
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.
Subject(s)
Lawyers , Humans , VictoriaABSTRACT
Injury compensation claimants use legal services to help them navigate compensation schemes, including accessing benefits and resolving disputes. Little is known, however, about the extent of lawyer use by compensation claimants, including changes over time. This paper presents findings from one of the largest empirical investigations of lawyer use in an injury compensation setting to date. Using evidence from more than 275,000 claims in the road traffic injury scheme in the state of Victoria, Australia, this study examines the prevalence of, and changes in, lawyer use between 2000 and 2015. The analysis identifies a significant increase in the use of lawyers in the scheme, and explores possible explanations. This study provides critical insights into lawyer use in compensation settings: the steep increase in lawyer involvement has both access to justice and financial implications for compensation schemes, given the associations between lawyer use, claimant outcomes, and long-term scheme viability.
Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic/legislation & jurisprudence , Compensation and Redress/legislation & jurisprudence , Lawyers/statistics & numerical data , Wounds and Injuries/epidemiology , Accidents, Traffic/economics , Accidents, Traffic/statistics & numerical data , Adolescent , Adult , Female , Hospitalization/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Socioeconomic Factors , Time Factors , Victoria/epidemiology , Wounds and Injuries/economics , Young AdultABSTRACT
IMPORTANCE: Each year, millions of persons worldwide seek compensation for transport accident and workplace injuries. Previous research suggests that these claimants have worse long-term health outcomes than persons whose injuries fall outside compensation schemes. However, existing studies have substantial methodological weaknesses and have not identified which aspects of the claiming experience may drive these effects. OBJECTIVE: To determine aspects of claims processes that claimants to transport accident and workers' compensation schemes find stressful and whether such stressful experiences are associated with poorer long-term recovery. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Prospective cohort study of a random sample of 1010 patients hospitalized in 3 Australian states for injuries from 2004 through 2006. At 6-year follow-up, we interviewed 332 participants who had claimed compensation from transport accident and workers' compensation schemes ("claimants") to determine which aspects of the claiming experience they found stressful. We used multivariable regression analysis to test for associations between compensation-related stress and health status at 6 years, adjusting for baseline determinants of long-term health status and predisposition to stressful experiences (via propensity scores). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Disability, quality of life, anxiety, and depression. RESULTS: Among claimants, 33.9% reported high levels of stress associated with understanding what they needed to do for their claim; 30.4%, with claim delays; 26.9%, with the number of medical assessments; and 26.1%, with the amount of compensation they received. Six years after their injury, claimants who reported high levels of stress had significantly higher levels of disability (+6.94 points, World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule sum score), anxiety and depression (+1.89 points and +2.61 points, respectively, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), and lower quality of life (-0.73 points, World Health Organization Quality of Life instrument, overall item), compared with other claimants. Adjusting for claimants' vulnerability to stress attenuated the strength of these associations, but most remained strong and statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Many claimants experience high levels of stress from engaging with injury compensation schemes, and this experience is positively correlated with poor long-term recovery. Intervening early to boost resilience among those at risk of stressful claims experiences and redesigning compensation processes to reduce their stressfulness may improve recovery and save money.
