Leisha Lister, Executive Adviser to the CEO of FCoA:
Understand what clients want!
From left to right: DG of Badilag, Wahyu Widiana, Leisha Lister, Cate Sumner, and Farid Ismail, Secretary to Badilag.
Jakarta | badilag.net/english (8/12)
Leisha Lister, Executive Adviser to the CEO of the Family Court of Australia, said on Monday (7/12) that whatever Religious Courts wanted to do should be focused on what courts clients want. Everything should be for the clients needs and satisfaction.
The statement delivered by Leisha Lister before 25 participants of English discussion held at Badilag office. Leisha accompanied by Cate Sumner, Lead Adviser of IA-LDF, presented a paper entitled “Excellence in Client Service Delivery”.
Leisha gave a very detailed explanation of how client service is handled professionally by the Family Court of Australia which, like Indonesian Religious Courts, deals with family law matters. The participants coming from various regions of Indonesia looked enthusiastic to ask questions to both Leisha and Cate.
.“We determine that phone calls must be answered within 90 seconds, email enquiries must be responded to within 2 working days, and calls are answered by the first contact so that people do not need to ask many persons,” Leisha gave several examples.
She further explained that it is important to set up clear indicators to measure clients satisfaction. FCoA (Family Court of Australia), she added, conducts regular surveys, forms stakeholder partnerships, appoints client feedback coordinator and judicial complaints advisor.
“We need to understand what clients want,” she said.
Client Service Principles.
FCoA also develops client service principles that must be upheld by all court staff. Court staff, Leisha went on, should be courteous, helpful and sensitive to individual needs. Providing prompt and responsive service, providing information and services that are relevant, accurate, understandable, and up-to date and actively addressing clients needs are other examples.
In addition, a clear framework of client service needs to be established. This can be done through measuring staff performance and regular reporting.
It is clear from Leisha’s presentation that a standardized client service should be uniformly implemented by Religious Courts all over Indonesia.
Family Relationship Center.
Answering question from a participant, Leisha said that, like the Mediation institution in Indonesia, Australia develops an institution to resolve disputes/cases before examined by judges. This institution is called Family Relationship Center.
The existence of Family Relationship Center, as Leisha acknowledged, has been proven to be successful in preventing cases from being decided by judges in the FCoA. “Only 5 % out of the whole cases received by FCoA that ended up being finalized by court judgments,” she said.
FCoA has now developed an online application program by which people can file application to the court via the internet. This application helps public to easily access the court. Online application seems inapplicable in Indonesia since the Law has not yet allowed.
“We need to learn from the system and client service standard in the Family Court of Australia. There are many things that we can learn and further be implemented in our Religious Courts so that our commitment to providing excellent service to the public can be fulfilled,” said DG of Badilag, Wahyu Widiana, responding to Leisha’s presentation.
In the end of her presentation, Leisha expressed her admiration to the achievement that Badilag has accomplished so far. The development of websites in almost all Religious Courts and judgment publication are among the achievement that Leisha highly appreciates.
“It’s amazing. You are dedicated people and you’ve done incredible works,” said Leisha who has been much involved in Indonesian Religious Courts since two years ago.
Like Leisha, Cate Sumner also appreciates the achievements of Badilag. Cate even said that during her 15 years involvement in Asia Pacific judicial cooperation, only Badilag that she thinks has made considerable progress. She said this progress was due to a wonderful leadership under the current Director General Wahyu Widiana.
Wahyu Widiana, speaking on behalf of himself and Directorate General of Religious Courts in the Supreme Court, expresses high gratitude to IA-LDF and the Family Court of Australia for the wonderful and very beneficial cooperation that Badilag MA RI and the two institutions have created. (choliluna)