Developing a Survey Instrument

• In Event: Legal Services for the Indigent: Designing a National Survey of Public Defenders

Abstract

Prior survey work on public defense at the national level has focused on mapping the organizations responsible for delivering services. Here we outline our work to design an instrument to survey the individual attorneys themselves who are responsible for delivering those services. We discuss our research, employing online Group Level Assessment and other techniques, to identify topics of importance to the fields of public defense researchers, public defenders, and clients of defenders. We conclude with a discussion of our steps taken toward the development of a survey instrument.

Authors

• Heather H. Hall, National Association for Public Defense

• Andrew L.B. Davies, NYS Office of Indigent Legal Services

• Jeanette Hussemann, Urban Institute

• Bill Adams, Urban Institute