In September, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) and the  Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HIIL) released their long-awaited report, Justice Needs and Satisfaction in the United States of America. This nationwide study engaged over 10,000 people across the U.S. to determine justice needs, people’s perceptions of justice information, and how people are interacting with the justice system. 

We at Pro Bono Net believe this study is very valuable to our partners and all legal non-profits across the U.S. We have distilled some of the most important takeaways for organizations that provide legal services and information online. A full copy of the report can be found here and an interactive dashboard can be found here

Disclaimer:

While IAALS and HIIL interviewed over 10,000 people for this report, their participants skewed toward mostly white, upper-middle class, and suburban individuals. (While the report indicates the survey was available in English and Spanish, it also does not provide a breakdown of responses by language.) Although this set of participants admittedly is not truly representative of all people experiencing legal problems, we still believe the data from this study can be instructive on how we and our partners think about presenting legal information online. 

Takeaways:

Our four key takeaways from the IAALS / HIIL report are:

  1. The internet is the main source of legal information for people with legal needs, and most people only use one source for legal information. This makes it very important that the content people see on legal information sites is current and well-thought-out, because it is likely that it is the only source they view. 
  2. Search presence is vitally important for legal information sites. This means paying attention not just to the keywords and rankings for sites and pages, but to other ways a legal aid organization could appear in search as well, such as Google Maps and Google My Business. 
  3. Facebook is the dominant social network platform for legal information seekers. Organizations should think about how to leverage Facebook profiles and content to engage with information seekers. 
  4. Content readability and trustworthiness are vitally important to educating users and keeping them engaged. Using plain language and making sure that resources are easy to understand and well organized are key to user engagement. 

Read below for more context and information on each takeaway. 

The internet is where most people are looking for and engaging with legal information

The highest used source of legal information was the internet (31%), followed by lawyers (29%), family members (25%), and friends (20%). IAALS Report, pg. 161. 

Over half of people said that they only used one source of legal information, while only 20% of people said they used two sources, and 12% said that they used three sources. This means that people looking for legal information on a website are likely to use that as their only source of information. In 2020, Pro Bono Net’s 20-state network of LawHelp legal information websites had record usage – more than 10 million visits – and in 85% of visits, people viewed a legal rights resource. The most heavily trafficked resources often involved issues where access to legal help was severely limited for people already facing financial hardship  – issues navigating the unemployment compensation process, applying for SNAP, and addressing eviction and housing stability issues. 

The Importance of Search:

When people were asked about where on the internet they looked for legal information, search engines were the heavy favorite (73%), followed by specific websites (62%). IAALS Report, pg. 166. Online forums and social media collectively made up only 28%. Our takeaway from this is that search presence is crucially important for websites delivering legal information. Pro Bono Net’s LawHelp sites have consistently performed well in Google search rankings for many topics, and as part of the LawHelp upgrade we are adding in full Schema.org support to create rich search results. This will make content on LawHelp sites more discoverable by search engines by providing Google and other search engines more “clues” about the content of key pages.

There are different aspects for search appearance as well, including Google’s My Business features. Notably, the Google maps listing includes a “Questions & answers” section where users can post questions that are answerable by anyone. If your organization has physical locations that can be found with Google Maps, we recommend creating a Google My Business listing in order to take control of the information displayed, and to regularly check on the Question & Answer section of your listing. 

Social Media:

When asked about looking for legal information on social media, an overwhelming number of people said they used Facebook (78%) when compared to other social media platforms. IAALS Report, pg. 167.

If your organization has a social media presence, we recommend focusing efforts on Facebook over other platforms. Data show that the most common social media platform referrer to LawHelp sites is Facebook by a huge margin (98%), and on average users from Facebook view 2.22 pages. For sites on the Pro Bono Net platform, 72% of social referrals are from Facebook. 

What makes information valuable?

When asked to pick the three most valuable characteristics of legal advice or information, survey participants said that trustworthiness, ease of understanding, and being targeted to their situation were the most valuable. Interestingly, characteristics related to the method of delivery were some of the lowest ranking, with ‘one-on-one help’ and ‘available online’ being the two lowest-ranked characteristics above ‘other.’ IAALS Report, pg. 173.

This information echoes what we at Pro Bono Net have heard in user testing and content development: users want to see information in a context that signals its trustworthiness. In other words, if someone is looking at a website they want to feel they can trust the information on that website. 

Unfortunately, the survey did not go on to ask participants what made information trustworthy, however, based on our experience, it involves the following factors: 

  • Website appearance – also thought of as the ‘storefront’ idea, this concept means that website visitors pick up on visual cues like design, listed dates, and things that appear out of place, in order to gauge credibility. 
  • Currentness of content – if a website’s content appears to be current, with current dates or addressing current topics, this lends it credibility in the eyes of visitors. 
  • Appearance of authority – this can come from both the organizations listed on a website and from the overall appearance of the site’s design and layout. 

One of the biggest goals for the LawHelp Design Refresh, which includes refreshed color palettes and a full site redesign, is to give LawHelp sites a more modern and contemporary look and feel, that matches not only what users expect to see, but also how users expect to navigate websites today as well. Visit LouisianaLawHelp.org for an example of a site with this new treatment. We believe this will increase perceived trustworthiness, as well as accessibility. We want LawHelp sites to showcase the content that our community works so hard to provide, and to offer a positive, calming experience for users facing stressful legal situations.  

Ease of understanding was the next most important factor. This means that using plain language and breaking up legal concepts into easy to understand pieces are essential in creating a valuable online resource. We know some of our partners strive for a 6th grade reading level for all of their Know Your Rights resources. Even though content may come to LawHelp or Pro Bono sites from external partners, we encourage all LawHelp Content Coordinators to have a plain language review phase planned and agreed upon upfront with any partnering authors.

Takeaways:

As we noted at the beginning of this post, the four key takeaways are: 

  1. The internet is the main source of legal information for people with legal needs, and most people only use one source for legal information. This makes it very important that the content people see on legal information sites is current and well-thought-out, because it is likely that it is the only source they view. 
  2. Search is vitally important for legal information sites. This means paying attention not just to the keywords and rankings for sites and pages, but to other ways a legal aid could appear in search as well, such as Google Maps and Google My Business. 
  3. Facebook is the dominant social network platform for legal information seekers. Organizations should think about how to leverage Facebook profiles and content to engage with information seekers. 
  4. Content readability and trustworthiness are vitally important to educating users and keeping them on the site. Using plain language and making sure that resources are easy to understand and well organized is key to user engagement. 

Did the report spark additional takeaways for you? Have questions or need help putting these suggestions into practice? We welcome your feedback! Don’t hesitate to contact us.