Access to justice research identifies how unmet legal need arises from and exacerbates disadvanta... more Access to justice research identifies how unmet legal need arises from and exacerbates disadvantage. In parallel, epidemiological research identifies the inequitable impact of social determinants on health. Health justice partnership (HJP) is an innovative response to this evidence: providing accessible legal help to individuals experiencing complex needs; building the capability of health and legal services to support these clients; and challenging systemic factors that contribute to social and health inequity. HJP offers a broader view of access to justice, demonstrating how the law and accessible legal help contribute to health and wellbeing outcomes, and are part of the shared challenge of responding to health and social inequity.
Introduction: Legal issues are known to affect and be affected by mental health. But to what exte... more Introduction: Legal issues are known to affect and be affected by mental health. But to what extent do legal issues surface in mental health settings and what do staff feel they need to support clients experiencing these issues? These questions were explored by a national mental health service interested in the potential for health justice partnership with local community based legal services. Methods: A survey of 999 frontline staff of a national mental health organisation. 146 staff (15%) responded from 70 service sites across Australia, including peer support workers (47%), support workers (20%), team leaders (17%) and clinicians (15%). Results: Staff identified a wide range of legal issues experienced by their clients (commonly referred to by staff as consumers), most commonly credit, debt and social security issues, housing, family law and family violence. Two-thirds (67%) of respondents indicated that they spent around 50% or more of their time 'responding to these types of issues'. Respondents indicated that they need more support to address legal issues facing their clients, particularly more knowledge of other services, connections with professionals in other organisations and connections with community. They also felt they could benefit from additional processes, tools, and resources, and time to manage their case load. Originality: While there is an emerging field of research exploring the legal capability of citizens, this study explores what mental health service staff feel they need to support consumers experiencing legal issues that can interact with mental health.
Introduction: Legal issues are known to affect and be affected by mental health. But to what exte... more Introduction: Legal issues are known to affect and be affected by mental health. But to what extent do legal issues surface in mental health settings and what do staff feel they need to support clients experiencing these issues? These questions were explored by a national mental health service interested in the potential for health justice partnership with local community based legal services. Methods: A survey of 999 frontline staff of a national mental health organisation. 146 staff (15%) responded from 70 service sites across Australia, including peer support workers (47%), support workers (20%), team leaders (17%) and clinicians (15%).
BackgroundUnaddressed family adversity has potentially modifiable, negative biopsychosocial impac... more BackgroundUnaddressed family adversity has potentially modifiable, negative biopsychosocial impacts across the life course. Little is known about how Australian health and social practitioners identify and respond to family adversity in community and primary health settings.ObjectiveTo describe, in two Australian community health services: (1) the number of adversities experienced by caregivers, (2) practitioner identification of caregivers experiencing adversity, (3) practitioner response to caregivers experiencing adversity, and (4) caregiver uptake of referrals.MethodsSurvey of caregivers of children aged 0–8 years attending community health services in Victoria and New South Wales (NSW). Analysis described frequencies of caregiver self-reported: (1) experiences of adversity, (2) practitioner identification of adversity, (3) practitioner response to adversity, and (4) referral uptake. Analyses were sub-grouped by three adversity domains and site.Results349 caregivers (Victoria: n...
Introduction: Legal issues are known to affect and be affected by mental health. But to what exte... more Introduction: Legal issues are known to affect and be affected by mental health. But to what extent do legal issues surface in mental health settings and what do staff feel they need to support clients experiencing these issues? These questions were explored by a national mental health service interested in the potential for health justice partnership with local community based legal services. Methods: A survey of 999 frontline staff of a national mental health organisation. 146 staff (15%) responded from 70 service sites across Australia, including peer support workers (47%), support workers (20%), team leaders (17%) and clinicians (15%).
There are realities to the recruitment, retention and availability of lawyers in RRR areas that n... more There are realities to the recruitment, retention and availability of lawyers in RRR areas that need to be acknowledged: Different RRR areas have their own unique characteristics. Some RRR areas have recruitment and retention difficulties and some do not. The difficulties experienced vary from region to region. Some RRR areas tend only to attract relatively inexperienced solicitors or solicitors prepared to stay for a fixed and relatively short period of time. However, having a more senior solicitor in more remote areas may be preferable given the nature of the work and the work conditions. Some RRR areas are experiencing economic, social and population decline and resident services, including legal services and private solicitor numbers, are likely to decline accordingly. There are significant disparities in the salaries of equivalent solicitor positions across the public legal assistance services. This almost certainly contributes to the movement of solicitors between these services and from more remote areas to inner regional areas and urban areas. Given these realities, individual solutions to recruitment and retention difficulties need to be area specific, problem specific and, in some cases, position specific. Legal assistance to disadvantaged people in NSW is provided by a range of legal services and these services are interrelated. While there is no overarching coordinated approach to the distribution and provision of these services, each service is affected by lawyer availability, recruitment and retention issues, particularly in regional, rural and remote areas. While 'blanket' solutions are not appropriate, a coordinated approach across the sector to address the availability, recruitment and retention of lawyers in RRR areas is important.
While technology and the way information is available to people have changed markedly since the L... more While technology and the way information is available to people have changed markedly since the Legal Australia-Wide (LAW) Survey was conducted in 2008, this paper reports important evidence concerning Australians' use of self-help resources (SHRs) for legal problems at that time based on new analysis of LAW Survey data. The findings show links between the use and helpfulness of SHRs, and the resolution and outcomes of legal problems. LAW Survey respondents only used SHRs for 20 per cent of legal problems, and rarely were they the only type of assistance sought or action taken. When used, SHRs were rated as helpful for only 60 per cent of legal problems. SHRs were typically one of a number of strategies people adopted in seeking to address their legal problems. This suggests SHRs should be viewed as a complementary, rather than alternative, stand-alone service strategy. Well-designed SHRs, integrated with and complementing other types of assistance, however, may well be more than the sum of their parts. People who used SHRs for one problem tended to do so for other problems and people who found SHRs helpful for one problem tended to find them helpful for others. A minority of people appear capable of effectively using SHRs-as one of several potential sources of helpto resolve legal problems. Use of SHRs was associated with increased use of formal advisers and other actions. This is the first research showing that obtaining 'helpful' SHRs can improve Australians' reported legal problem outcome satisfaction and favourability. Reported outcomes are also improved when the main adviser provides prepackaged legal information. These findings support investment in SHRs as a component of an effective legal assistance service strategy, at least for some types of legal problems and for some people. Many other people are less capable of effectively using SHRs, and typically don't use them, don't find them helpful, or don't achieve satisfactory and favourable outcomes. The evidence therefore suggests a cautious approach to SHRs as a stand-alone legal assistance service strategy. Further research is needed into what makes SHRs 'helpful'-for different types of users and legal problemsand how to facilitate access to quality, useful SHRs. Digital technology is one obvious strategy. The findings, however, indicate that uptake and effectiveness will vary by both legal problem and user demographic characteristics. Digital SHRs may be more effective as a strategy to enhance access to justice and better meet the legal needs of the 'missing middle' than as a substitute for legal advice for public legal assistance clients. More nuanced understanding of how personal legal capability intersects with digital capability is also needed. This appears key to realising any substantial gains from 'digital transformation', to the design of SHRs that 'work', and to effectively gauge and monitor access to justice impact. We need to learn more about 'what works', for whom and for what, to better meet the diverse legal need and capability of all Australians. involving the justice system (cf. Genn 1999). See Coumarelos, Macourt, People, McDonald, Wei, Iriana and Ramsey (2012) for further discussion of the concept of legal need and relationship with legal knowledge and capability. Understanding self-help resources in the legal assistance services context What are self-help resources? Today, self-help resources is a term applied to a broad range of hardcopy resources such as factsheets, leaflets, booklets, do-it-yourself kits, guides and handbooks (which people often source online) as well as a rapidly growing number of digital resources such as websites, apps, videos or podcasts provided to assist people to progress or resolve everyday legal problems themselves. Self-help resources are a legal assistance strategy specifically intended to help people to help themselves. Digital solutions now offer the promise of guided pathways, online dispute resolution (ODR) and artificial intelligence (AI) in multiple embodiments, such as natural language inquiry, chat-bots, virtual assistant avatars, intelligent automation and predictive analytics, to help users to clarify legal needs and decide what they what to do next. This paper uses data from the Legal Australia-Wide (LAW) Survey to measure the use and helpfulness of legal self-help resources. In the LAW Survey, respondents were asked if they had sought help from a website, book, leaflet or self-help guide and no distinction was made between hardcopy and digital format. Since the fieldwork for the LAW Survey was conducted in 2008, self-help resources have undergone significant transformation. Among the drivers of change are smartphones, which were introduced in Australia in 2007, high-speed business and home internet connections supporting higher bandwidth higher capability online platforms, and the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI). Community legal education and information (CLEI) refers to a range of community legal events and community legal information in hardcopy and digital format, typically provided by public legal assistance services as a strategy to enhance community knowledge of law and sources of assistance, and thereby increase access to justice, including access to legal advice services and self-help resources. CLEI material is often targeted to the general community, particular subgroups , or community workers and human services workers who provide services to particular subgroups that often experience access to justice barriers. Prepackaged legal information means a legal information pack which has not been tailored to a client's specific needs but contains generic information about law and dispute resolution, often in the form of factsheets, booklets or print-outs from government websites. Public legal advisers commonly provide or refer clients to prepackaged legal information during advice appointments, to help clarify and reinforce legal information provided, and assist them to resolve everyday legal problems themselves. 3 by those they are designed to benefit. As technology advances rapidly, people expect legal and other information to be readily available in a form they can easily use to meet their needs. Unbundled legal assistance: SHRs A wide range of legal SHRs-factsheets, leaflets, booklets, do-it-yourself kits, guides, handbooks, videos, podcasts and the like-are produced to help lay people (i.e. those without legal training and skills) to resolve legal problems themselves, and to variously increase legal confidence, empowerment and resilience (
CLE community legal education CLEI community legal education and information CLEMs Legal Aid NSW'... more CLE community legal education CLEI community legal education and information CLEMs Legal Aid NSW's Community Legal Education Management database CS Central Sydney Research questions Data source As per data reports to the Commonwealth Reporting for all DVU work using the customised dashboard, every six months, or as required.
This report draws on more than a decade of empirical research evidence - together with current ex... more This report draws on more than a decade of empirical research evidence - together with current experience of service providers - to inform the design and delivery of efficient and effective legal assistance services. Written as a tool for policy makers, practitioners, service managers and researchers, the report highlights the key directions for reform suggested by research evidence, and identifies the benefits and challenges of different service options. Acknowledging current arrangements and resources, the report provides a basis for considering how to move from the theory to the practice of client-centred service delivery.
Policy Points Health actors can use the law more strategically in the pursuit of health and equit... more Policy Points Health actors can use the law more strategically in the pursuit of health and equity by addressing governance challenges (e.g., fragmented and overlapping mandates between health and nonhealth institutions), employing a broader rights‐based discourse in the public health policy process, and collaborating with the access to justice movement.Health justice partnerships provide a road map for implementing a sociolegal model of health to reduce health inequities by strengthening legal capacities for health among the health workforce and patients. This in turn will enable them to resolve health issues with legal solutions, to dismantle service silos, and to drive systemic policy and law reform. ContextIn the field of public health, the law and legal systems remain a poorly understood and substantially underutilized tool to address unfair or unjust societal conditions underpinning health inequities. The aim of our article is to demonstrate the value of expanding from a social model of health to a sociolegal model of health and empowering health actors to use the law more strategically in the pursuit of health equity.MethodsWe propose a modified version of the framework for the social determinants of health (SDoH) equity developed by the 2008 World Health Organization Commission on the Social Determinants of Health by conceptually integrating the functions of the law as identified by the 2019 Lancet–O'Neill Institute Commission on Global Health and Law.FindingsAccess to justice provides a critical intersection between social models of public health and work in the justice fields. Addressing the inequities produced through the policies and institutions governing society unites the causes of those seeking to enhance access to justice and those seeking to reduce health inequities. Health justice partnerships (HJPs) are an example of a sociolegal model of health in action. Through the resolution of health issues with legal solutions at the individual level, the dismantling of service silos at the institutional level, and policy and law reform at the systemic level, HJPs demonstrate how the law can be used as a tool to reduce social and health inequities.ConclusionsGreater attention to law as a tool for health creates space for increased collaboration among legal and health scholars, practitioners, and advocates, particularly those working in the areas of the social determinants of health and access to justice, and a promising avenue for reducing health inequities.
In recent years there has been an increasing drive to improve access to legal services through th... more In recent years there has been an increasing drive to improve access to legal services through the use of video conferencing technology. This paper reports on an extensive search for, and review of, existing research into the use of video conferencing to deliver legal assistance particularly to disadvantaged clients, clients in regional, rural and remote (RRR) areas and clients in custody. The limited yield of this search has been supplemented with the considerable experience and insights of service providers who have used video conferencing for legal assistance and a small number of methodologically more rigorous studies and systematic reviews which have evaluated the use of video conferencing for health services. The review findings are summarised on page 2. The findings indicate the need for caution in the large scale roll out of video conferencing technology for legal assistance. 1 2 Non-verbal communication includes elements such as facial expressions, making or avoiding eye contact, and body posture. Such signals can communicate emotional reactions, understanding, confusion, agreement, enthusiasm, wariness and dishonesty, which can either emphasise or contradict the verbal communication. It is argued that non-verbal communication can assist in establishing rapport between lawyer and client and, in some circumstances, may help the lawyer to assess the accuracy, completeness and impact of communicated information. Summary of findings • The volume and quality of available research into the use of video conferencing for the provision of legal assistance is very limited, with no studies able to provide conclusive evidence about the 'effectiveness' of video conferencing compared to telephone and 'in-person' services for legal assistance. Nevertheless, we were able to draw useful insights from the material reviewed.
The literature available about social definitions of corruption is surprisingly discrete from tha... more The literature available about social definitions of corruption is surprisingly discrete from that which addresses the issue of whistleblowing or the reporting of crime and corruption. The current study, however, empirically links the two. A survey of more than 1300 public sector ...
The Law and Justice Foundation of NSW is undertaking a major program of research to identify the ... more The Law and Justice Foundation of NSW is undertaking a major program of research to identify the access to justice and legal needs of disadvantaged people in NSW. The most recent report in the Access to Justice and Legal Needs (A2JLN) series, No Home, No Justice?, reports on a study of the legal issues facing homeless people in NSW, their ability to obtain legal assistance for these issues and their capacity to participate effectively in the legal system. The study also examined the role of nonlegal support workers and agencies in assisting homeless people to identify and address their legal issues.
Over the last decade, the Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales has been committed to an ... more Over the last decade, the Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales has been committed to an extensive program of research to identify the legal and access to justice needs of the community. Building on the leading international research into legal need, the Foundation has, for the first time, provided a rigorous picture of legal need for the Australian community, and particularly that of disadvantaged people. For example, the recently published Legal Australia-Wide Survey (LAW Survey), which involved interviewing some 20,716 people across Australia, has provided the most comprehensive assessment of the legal problems people experience, which disadvantaged groups are particularly vulnerable to legal problems, the actions people take to resolve problems, where people seek advice, and the outcomes people achieve with their legal problems. The research highlights important similarities between Australian jurisdictions, and between Australian and international experience. Apart from suggesting that perhaps local-level political and economic cycles are not so important in terms of the legal needs of the community, the similarities allow us to be confident that the common themes and trends identified through international legal need research are sound. There still remains much work to do to fully understand the legal needs that affect the community, particularly in relation to substantial problems and hard-to-reach target groups. Further, legal needs inevitably change over time, along with social and legal practice norms and the law. Nevertheless, for service providers, policy makers and researchers, there now exist widely recognised themes or 'directions for travel' for reform in the area of meeting the legal needs of the community. Four themes in particular stand out. Legal assistance services for disadvantaged people should, as far as practicable, be: • targeted to those most in need • joined-up with other services (non-legal and legal) likely to be needed • timely to minimise the impact of problems and maximise utility of the service, and • appropriate to the needs and capabilities of users. Of course, statements such as these are easy to make. However, they are often difficult to operationalise. As always, the devil is in the detail, and it is often very difficult to analyse and understand complex problems and models for their solution, while reducing these to provide simplified, accurate communication of the lessons learned. 'Wicked problems' are so named because of their complexity and resistance to resolution. These problems are only likely to be resolved with complex thinking and the thoughtful application of relevant principles, research-identified 'directions for travel' and best-practice experience, to the particular circumstances of the particular problem. Nowhere is this theory-to-practice dimension more challenging than in relation to 'joined-up' services. This discussion paper devotes a chapter to what being 'joined-up' may mean for legal assistance services, as it does to each of the other three key themes. The chapter concerning joined-up services discusses, through a realistic lens, the options for collaborative work with other services, and the costs and challenges involved. While recognising the benefits that can come with the right amount of 'joining up', the paper clearly points out the difficulties, including the time and resources needed. The other key themes-targeted, timely and appropriate services-are considered in similarly realistic analyses in their separate chapters. The aim of this discussion paper, then, is to assist service providers, policy makers and researchers to undertake their next steps as they seek to meet the legal needs of the community. It does not v Further, sometimes funding and responsibility arrangements appear structurally opposed to matching service provision to changing legal need. For example, the Commonwealth funds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS) to undertake predominantly criminal work, yet the criminal law concerned is predominantly state-based. ATSILS service provision ideally needs to respond to state-level reforms and even to local and regional policing practices, and it would seem difficult for Commonwealth-level funding to be sufficiently responsive. Importantly though, current funding arrangements may hinder the flexibility required of legal assistance services and possibly other human services to enable policy makers and service providers to fully consider the relevant factors, options and models-including those highlighted in this discussion paper-and establish, on the best available information, the most appropriate, timely, targeted and joined-up services to best meet the legal needs of the particular client or client group. Of course these observations are neither new nor limited to the legal assistance sector. For example, in their 2010 Research Report into the Contribution of the Not-for-Profit Sector, the Productivity Commission observed that: ... the very clear message from the sector is that current government tendering, contracting and reporting requirements impose a significant compliance burden and constrained the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. There is a sense of frustration that often these arrangements do not appear to result in improved service delivery outcomes for clients. Further, many in the sector are concerned that current arrangements limit their ability to innovate and respond at a local level to existing and emerging social problems. ii Further, the Commission argued that: Conceptually, having too many funding streams can be inefficient to the extent that it involves avoidable costs for both governments and providers. On the face of it, this suggests that governments should consider the appropriateness and feasibility of joining up funding streams within and across levels of government. However, this issue raises complex questions about agency and program based funding allocations and design and intergovernmental funding arrangements that are best considered on a case-by-case basis and which are outside the scope of this study. iii Options for engagement with government funded services One of the main challenges to implementing effective mechanisms for funding and allocating responsibility for the provision of legal assistance services is determining appropriate models suitable for a flexible and nuanced client-focused approach. While not all legal assistance services are provided by the not-for-profit sector, the discussion of funding models contained in the Productivity Commission's Contribution of the Not-for-Profit Sector report is instructive. Leaving aside operational grants for specific (and generally limited) purposes, the report discusses three key models for funding not-for-profit services to deliver services to the community. The 'client-directed model' generally applies to individual funding for clients to allow them to choose between providers and services. Such a model may be appropriate for many human services in a variety of circumstances, particularly, say, when there is a realistic market of service providers and highly capable or well-supported target recipients of these services. However, in the context of the delivery of legal assistance services, there will be a limited range of legal assistance services available to particular clients in particular locations. Also, when targeting the most disadvantaged who may have less capability and/or support to address their legal problems, this model may not be appropriate in many circumstances. 'Purchase of service contracting', on the other hand, is a model commonly employed in the legal assistance sector and for the funding of the not-for-profit sector to deliver human services more broadly. It involves government agencies contracting with providers to deliver services to eligible clients and to be funded for this. The Productivity Commission iv has argued that the main vi Reshaping legal assistance services: building on the evidence base benefits of this model occur when providers are able to deliver services more cost effectively and with greater innovation than government, and where they can add value through their broader activities. However: these benefits can be substantially eroded as governments become more prescriptive about the processes by which outcomes are achieved and impose heavy-handed tendering, contractual and reporting requirements. v Further: purchase of service contracting is most applicable to the delivery of relatively standardised services for which there is a widespread need in the community. As such it is particularly suited to the rollout of large-scale national programs. Conversely, it can be harder for this model to support enhanced client choice as more tailored and differentiated services are more complex and costly for governments to specify adequately in contract, and for contracts to be monitored and enforced. vi viii Reshaping legal assistance services: building on the evidence base Going forward Much more thought needs to be devoted to this issue of appropriate funding and accountability mechanisms for legal assistance services. The comments I have made are generally directed at the issue of ensuring such mechanisms are sufficiently flexible to allow service providers and policy makers to implement services that are most appropriate to meet the needs of the target groups, based on the latest research and practical realities. Of course, other funding principles will always apply. Commonwealth government procurement of services will generally be subject to overarching procurement frameworks and guidelines. xiii Applying these in such a way as to ensure legal assistance service provision can be most 'fit for the purpose' of meeting the legal needs of disadvantaged people is the challenge. We hope that the review into the Access to Justice Arrangements by the Productivity...
and private solicitors undertaking legal aid work all have a role in meeting the legal needs of d... more and private solicitors undertaking legal aid work all have a role in meeting the legal needs of disadvantaged communities in rural, regional and remote (RRR) parts of NSW. Yet there are reports that staff shortages are affecting the capacity of these services to perform this work-in some areas more than others. In order to gain a 'snapshot' of solicitor availability in RRR areas and to assess any regional differences in their availability to undertake community sector legal work in NSW, the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW has undertaken a census of all public legal assistance positions in NSW. The study examined whether the positions were filled or vacant, how they were filled, and the length of time that they were filled (or vacant). The research also drew upon data from the NSW Law Society and the three main public legal services in NSW to map solicitor availability across NSW against a range of indicators, including socioeconomic disadvantage. In addition, interviews were conducted with solicitors working in (and who had left) 'hard to staff' areas with a view to better understanding differences in the recruitment and retention of solicitors across RRR areas of NSW. The major findings of the Foundation's full research report
Women and children experiencing domestic and family violence benefit when services are integrated... more Women and children experiencing domestic and family violence benefit when services are integrated across sectors. This is especially true for women in rural and regional areas, women with disability, women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, who all face additional barriers to accessing services.
Executive summary 6 Introduction 9 Methodology 10 Respondents and response rate 10 How the legal ... more Executive summary 6 Introduction 9 Methodology 10 Respondents and response rate 10 How the legal and health service data are used in this report 10 Services on the landscape 11 Results 13 The growth of health justice services in Australia 13 The landscape across Australia 14 The service settings 16 The partners 18 People assisted 20 Legal issues addressed 23 Referrals between the health and legal partners 26 Type of legal assistance provided 27 Secondary consultation 28 Coordinated care 29 Cross-disciplinary training 30 Facilitating systems change 31 Activity to support partnering 32 Resourcing 34 Evaluation 38 Implications and next steps 39 References 41 Appendix 1 Methodology 42 Contents In 2018, HJA published Mapping a new path: the health justice landscape in Australia, 2017, a first and foundational profile of the health justice landscape across Australia based on activity up to mid-2017 (Forell, 2018). Using that first survey as a pilot, we now report the findings of the 2018 census, covering services and activities on the health justice landscape in the 2017-2018 financial year.
Access to justice research identifies how unmet legal need arises from and exacerbates disadvanta... more Access to justice research identifies how unmet legal need arises from and exacerbates disadvantage. In parallel, epidemiological research identifies the inequitable impact of social determinants on health. Health justice partnership (HJP) is an innovative response to this evidence: providing accessible legal help to individuals experiencing complex needs; building the capability of health and legal services to support these clients; and challenging systemic factors that contribute to social and health inequity. HJP offers a broader view of access to justice, demonstrating how the law and accessible legal help contribute to health and wellbeing outcomes, and are part of the shared challenge of responding to health and social inequity.
Introduction: Legal issues are known to affect and be affected by mental health. But to what exte... more Introduction: Legal issues are known to affect and be affected by mental health. But to what extent do legal issues surface in mental health settings and what do staff feel they need to support clients experiencing these issues? These questions were explored by a national mental health service interested in the potential for health justice partnership with local community based legal services. Methods: A survey of 999 frontline staff of a national mental health organisation. 146 staff (15%) responded from 70 service sites across Australia, including peer support workers (47%), support workers (20%), team leaders (17%) and clinicians (15%). Results: Staff identified a wide range of legal issues experienced by their clients (commonly referred to by staff as consumers), most commonly credit, debt and social security issues, housing, family law and family violence. Two-thirds (67%) of respondents indicated that they spent around 50% or more of their time 'responding to these types of issues'. Respondents indicated that they need more support to address legal issues facing their clients, particularly more knowledge of other services, connections with professionals in other organisations and connections with community. They also felt they could benefit from additional processes, tools, and resources, and time to manage their case load. Originality: While there is an emerging field of research exploring the legal capability of citizens, this study explores what mental health service staff feel they need to support consumers experiencing legal issues that can interact with mental health.
Introduction: Legal issues are known to affect and be affected by mental health. But to what exte... more Introduction: Legal issues are known to affect and be affected by mental health. But to what extent do legal issues surface in mental health settings and what do staff feel they need to support clients experiencing these issues? These questions were explored by a national mental health service interested in the potential for health justice partnership with local community based legal services. Methods: A survey of 999 frontline staff of a national mental health organisation. 146 staff (15%) responded from 70 service sites across Australia, including peer support workers (47%), support workers (20%), team leaders (17%) and clinicians (15%).
BackgroundUnaddressed family adversity has potentially modifiable, negative biopsychosocial impac... more BackgroundUnaddressed family adversity has potentially modifiable, negative biopsychosocial impacts across the life course. Little is known about how Australian health and social practitioners identify and respond to family adversity in community and primary health settings.ObjectiveTo describe, in two Australian community health services: (1) the number of adversities experienced by caregivers, (2) practitioner identification of caregivers experiencing adversity, (3) practitioner response to caregivers experiencing adversity, and (4) caregiver uptake of referrals.MethodsSurvey of caregivers of children aged 0–8 years attending community health services in Victoria and New South Wales (NSW). Analysis described frequencies of caregiver self-reported: (1) experiences of adversity, (2) practitioner identification of adversity, (3) practitioner response to adversity, and (4) referral uptake. Analyses were sub-grouped by three adversity domains and site.Results349 caregivers (Victoria: n...
Introduction: Legal issues are known to affect and be affected by mental health. But to what exte... more Introduction: Legal issues are known to affect and be affected by mental health. But to what extent do legal issues surface in mental health settings and what do staff feel they need to support clients experiencing these issues? These questions were explored by a national mental health service interested in the potential for health justice partnership with local community based legal services. Methods: A survey of 999 frontline staff of a national mental health organisation. 146 staff (15%) responded from 70 service sites across Australia, including peer support workers (47%), support workers (20%), team leaders (17%) and clinicians (15%).
There are realities to the recruitment, retention and availability of lawyers in RRR areas that n... more There are realities to the recruitment, retention and availability of lawyers in RRR areas that need to be acknowledged: Different RRR areas have their own unique characteristics. Some RRR areas have recruitment and retention difficulties and some do not. The difficulties experienced vary from region to region. Some RRR areas tend only to attract relatively inexperienced solicitors or solicitors prepared to stay for a fixed and relatively short period of time. However, having a more senior solicitor in more remote areas may be preferable given the nature of the work and the work conditions. Some RRR areas are experiencing economic, social and population decline and resident services, including legal services and private solicitor numbers, are likely to decline accordingly. There are significant disparities in the salaries of equivalent solicitor positions across the public legal assistance services. This almost certainly contributes to the movement of solicitors between these services and from more remote areas to inner regional areas and urban areas. Given these realities, individual solutions to recruitment and retention difficulties need to be area specific, problem specific and, in some cases, position specific. Legal assistance to disadvantaged people in NSW is provided by a range of legal services and these services are interrelated. While there is no overarching coordinated approach to the distribution and provision of these services, each service is affected by lawyer availability, recruitment and retention issues, particularly in regional, rural and remote areas. While 'blanket' solutions are not appropriate, a coordinated approach across the sector to address the availability, recruitment and retention of lawyers in RRR areas is important.
While technology and the way information is available to people have changed markedly since the L... more While technology and the way information is available to people have changed markedly since the Legal Australia-Wide (LAW) Survey was conducted in 2008, this paper reports important evidence concerning Australians' use of self-help resources (SHRs) for legal problems at that time based on new analysis of LAW Survey data. The findings show links between the use and helpfulness of SHRs, and the resolution and outcomes of legal problems. LAW Survey respondents only used SHRs for 20 per cent of legal problems, and rarely were they the only type of assistance sought or action taken. When used, SHRs were rated as helpful for only 60 per cent of legal problems. SHRs were typically one of a number of strategies people adopted in seeking to address their legal problems. This suggests SHRs should be viewed as a complementary, rather than alternative, stand-alone service strategy. Well-designed SHRs, integrated with and complementing other types of assistance, however, may well be more than the sum of their parts. People who used SHRs for one problem tended to do so for other problems and people who found SHRs helpful for one problem tended to find them helpful for others. A minority of people appear capable of effectively using SHRs-as one of several potential sources of helpto resolve legal problems. Use of SHRs was associated with increased use of formal advisers and other actions. This is the first research showing that obtaining 'helpful' SHRs can improve Australians' reported legal problem outcome satisfaction and favourability. Reported outcomes are also improved when the main adviser provides prepackaged legal information. These findings support investment in SHRs as a component of an effective legal assistance service strategy, at least for some types of legal problems and for some people. Many other people are less capable of effectively using SHRs, and typically don't use them, don't find them helpful, or don't achieve satisfactory and favourable outcomes. The evidence therefore suggests a cautious approach to SHRs as a stand-alone legal assistance service strategy. Further research is needed into what makes SHRs 'helpful'-for different types of users and legal problemsand how to facilitate access to quality, useful SHRs. Digital technology is one obvious strategy. The findings, however, indicate that uptake and effectiveness will vary by both legal problem and user demographic characteristics. Digital SHRs may be more effective as a strategy to enhance access to justice and better meet the legal needs of the 'missing middle' than as a substitute for legal advice for public legal assistance clients. More nuanced understanding of how personal legal capability intersects with digital capability is also needed. This appears key to realising any substantial gains from 'digital transformation', to the design of SHRs that 'work', and to effectively gauge and monitor access to justice impact. We need to learn more about 'what works', for whom and for what, to better meet the diverse legal need and capability of all Australians. involving the justice system (cf. Genn 1999). See Coumarelos, Macourt, People, McDonald, Wei, Iriana and Ramsey (2012) for further discussion of the concept of legal need and relationship with legal knowledge and capability. Understanding self-help resources in the legal assistance services context What are self-help resources? Today, self-help resources is a term applied to a broad range of hardcopy resources such as factsheets, leaflets, booklets, do-it-yourself kits, guides and handbooks (which people often source online) as well as a rapidly growing number of digital resources such as websites, apps, videos or podcasts provided to assist people to progress or resolve everyday legal problems themselves. Self-help resources are a legal assistance strategy specifically intended to help people to help themselves. Digital solutions now offer the promise of guided pathways, online dispute resolution (ODR) and artificial intelligence (AI) in multiple embodiments, such as natural language inquiry, chat-bots, virtual assistant avatars, intelligent automation and predictive analytics, to help users to clarify legal needs and decide what they what to do next. This paper uses data from the Legal Australia-Wide (LAW) Survey to measure the use and helpfulness of legal self-help resources. In the LAW Survey, respondents were asked if they had sought help from a website, book, leaflet or self-help guide and no distinction was made between hardcopy and digital format. Since the fieldwork for the LAW Survey was conducted in 2008, self-help resources have undergone significant transformation. Among the drivers of change are smartphones, which were introduced in Australia in 2007, high-speed business and home internet connections supporting higher bandwidth higher capability online platforms, and the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI). Community legal education and information (CLEI) refers to a range of community legal events and community legal information in hardcopy and digital format, typically provided by public legal assistance services as a strategy to enhance community knowledge of law and sources of assistance, and thereby increase access to justice, including access to legal advice services and self-help resources. CLEI material is often targeted to the general community, particular subgroups , or community workers and human services workers who provide services to particular subgroups that often experience access to justice barriers. Prepackaged legal information means a legal information pack which has not been tailored to a client's specific needs but contains generic information about law and dispute resolution, often in the form of factsheets, booklets or print-outs from government websites. Public legal advisers commonly provide or refer clients to prepackaged legal information during advice appointments, to help clarify and reinforce legal information provided, and assist them to resolve everyday legal problems themselves. 3 by those they are designed to benefit. As technology advances rapidly, people expect legal and other information to be readily available in a form they can easily use to meet their needs. Unbundled legal assistance: SHRs A wide range of legal SHRs-factsheets, leaflets, booklets, do-it-yourself kits, guides, handbooks, videos, podcasts and the like-are produced to help lay people (i.e. those without legal training and skills) to resolve legal problems themselves, and to variously increase legal confidence, empowerment and resilience (
CLE community legal education CLEI community legal education and information CLEMs Legal Aid NSW'... more CLE community legal education CLEI community legal education and information CLEMs Legal Aid NSW's Community Legal Education Management database CS Central Sydney Research questions Data source As per data reports to the Commonwealth Reporting for all DVU work using the customised dashboard, every six months, or as required.
This report draws on more than a decade of empirical research evidence - together with current ex... more This report draws on more than a decade of empirical research evidence - together with current experience of service providers - to inform the design and delivery of efficient and effective legal assistance services. Written as a tool for policy makers, practitioners, service managers and researchers, the report highlights the key directions for reform suggested by research evidence, and identifies the benefits and challenges of different service options. Acknowledging current arrangements and resources, the report provides a basis for considering how to move from the theory to the practice of client-centred service delivery.
Policy Points Health actors can use the law more strategically in the pursuit of health and equit... more Policy Points Health actors can use the law more strategically in the pursuit of health and equity by addressing governance challenges (e.g., fragmented and overlapping mandates between health and nonhealth institutions), employing a broader rights‐based discourse in the public health policy process, and collaborating with the access to justice movement.Health justice partnerships provide a road map for implementing a sociolegal model of health to reduce health inequities by strengthening legal capacities for health among the health workforce and patients. This in turn will enable them to resolve health issues with legal solutions, to dismantle service silos, and to drive systemic policy and law reform. ContextIn the field of public health, the law and legal systems remain a poorly understood and substantially underutilized tool to address unfair or unjust societal conditions underpinning health inequities. The aim of our article is to demonstrate the value of expanding from a social model of health to a sociolegal model of health and empowering health actors to use the law more strategically in the pursuit of health equity.MethodsWe propose a modified version of the framework for the social determinants of health (SDoH) equity developed by the 2008 World Health Organization Commission on the Social Determinants of Health by conceptually integrating the functions of the law as identified by the 2019 Lancet–O'Neill Institute Commission on Global Health and Law.FindingsAccess to justice provides a critical intersection between social models of public health and work in the justice fields. Addressing the inequities produced through the policies and institutions governing society unites the causes of those seeking to enhance access to justice and those seeking to reduce health inequities. Health justice partnerships (HJPs) are an example of a sociolegal model of health in action. Through the resolution of health issues with legal solutions at the individual level, the dismantling of service silos at the institutional level, and policy and law reform at the systemic level, HJPs demonstrate how the law can be used as a tool to reduce social and health inequities.ConclusionsGreater attention to law as a tool for health creates space for increased collaboration among legal and health scholars, practitioners, and advocates, particularly those working in the areas of the social determinants of health and access to justice, and a promising avenue for reducing health inequities.
In recent years there has been an increasing drive to improve access to legal services through th... more In recent years there has been an increasing drive to improve access to legal services through the use of video conferencing technology. This paper reports on an extensive search for, and review of, existing research into the use of video conferencing to deliver legal assistance particularly to disadvantaged clients, clients in regional, rural and remote (RRR) areas and clients in custody. The limited yield of this search has been supplemented with the considerable experience and insights of service providers who have used video conferencing for legal assistance and a small number of methodologically more rigorous studies and systematic reviews which have evaluated the use of video conferencing for health services. The review findings are summarised on page 2. The findings indicate the need for caution in the large scale roll out of video conferencing technology for legal assistance. 1 2 Non-verbal communication includes elements such as facial expressions, making or avoiding eye contact, and body posture. Such signals can communicate emotional reactions, understanding, confusion, agreement, enthusiasm, wariness and dishonesty, which can either emphasise or contradict the verbal communication. It is argued that non-verbal communication can assist in establishing rapport between lawyer and client and, in some circumstances, may help the lawyer to assess the accuracy, completeness and impact of communicated information. Summary of findings • The volume and quality of available research into the use of video conferencing for the provision of legal assistance is very limited, with no studies able to provide conclusive evidence about the 'effectiveness' of video conferencing compared to telephone and 'in-person' services for legal assistance. Nevertheless, we were able to draw useful insights from the material reviewed.
The literature available about social definitions of corruption is surprisingly discrete from tha... more The literature available about social definitions of corruption is surprisingly discrete from that which addresses the issue of whistleblowing or the reporting of crime and corruption. The current study, however, empirically links the two. A survey of more than 1300 public sector ...
The Law and Justice Foundation of NSW is undertaking a major program of research to identify the ... more The Law and Justice Foundation of NSW is undertaking a major program of research to identify the access to justice and legal needs of disadvantaged people in NSW. The most recent report in the Access to Justice and Legal Needs (A2JLN) series, No Home, No Justice?, reports on a study of the legal issues facing homeless people in NSW, their ability to obtain legal assistance for these issues and their capacity to participate effectively in the legal system. The study also examined the role of nonlegal support workers and agencies in assisting homeless people to identify and address their legal issues.
Over the last decade, the Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales has been committed to an ... more Over the last decade, the Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales has been committed to an extensive program of research to identify the legal and access to justice needs of the community. Building on the leading international research into legal need, the Foundation has, for the first time, provided a rigorous picture of legal need for the Australian community, and particularly that of disadvantaged people. For example, the recently published Legal Australia-Wide Survey (LAW Survey), which involved interviewing some 20,716 people across Australia, has provided the most comprehensive assessment of the legal problems people experience, which disadvantaged groups are particularly vulnerable to legal problems, the actions people take to resolve problems, where people seek advice, and the outcomes people achieve with their legal problems. The research highlights important similarities between Australian jurisdictions, and between Australian and international experience. Apart from suggesting that perhaps local-level political and economic cycles are not so important in terms of the legal needs of the community, the similarities allow us to be confident that the common themes and trends identified through international legal need research are sound. There still remains much work to do to fully understand the legal needs that affect the community, particularly in relation to substantial problems and hard-to-reach target groups. Further, legal needs inevitably change over time, along with social and legal practice norms and the law. Nevertheless, for service providers, policy makers and researchers, there now exist widely recognised themes or 'directions for travel' for reform in the area of meeting the legal needs of the community. Four themes in particular stand out. Legal assistance services for disadvantaged people should, as far as practicable, be: • targeted to those most in need • joined-up with other services (non-legal and legal) likely to be needed • timely to minimise the impact of problems and maximise utility of the service, and • appropriate to the needs and capabilities of users. Of course, statements such as these are easy to make. However, they are often difficult to operationalise. As always, the devil is in the detail, and it is often very difficult to analyse and understand complex problems and models for their solution, while reducing these to provide simplified, accurate communication of the lessons learned. 'Wicked problems' are so named because of their complexity and resistance to resolution. These problems are only likely to be resolved with complex thinking and the thoughtful application of relevant principles, research-identified 'directions for travel' and best-practice experience, to the particular circumstances of the particular problem. Nowhere is this theory-to-practice dimension more challenging than in relation to 'joined-up' services. This discussion paper devotes a chapter to what being 'joined-up' may mean for legal assistance services, as it does to each of the other three key themes. The chapter concerning joined-up services discusses, through a realistic lens, the options for collaborative work with other services, and the costs and challenges involved. While recognising the benefits that can come with the right amount of 'joining up', the paper clearly points out the difficulties, including the time and resources needed. The other key themes-targeted, timely and appropriate services-are considered in similarly realistic analyses in their separate chapters. The aim of this discussion paper, then, is to assist service providers, policy makers and researchers to undertake their next steps as they seek to meet the legal needs of the community. It does not v Further, sometimes funding and responsibility arrangements appear structurally opposed to matching service provision to changing legal need. For example, the Commonwealth funds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS) to undertake predominantly criminal work, yet the criminal law concerned is predominantly state-based. ATSILS service provision ideally needs to respond to state-level reforms and even to local and regional policing practices, and it would seem difficult for Commonwealth-level funding to be sufficiently responsive. Importantly though, current funding arrangements may hinder the flexibility required of legal assistance services and possibly other human services to enable policy makers and service providers to fully consider the relevant factors, options and models-including those highlighted in this discussion paper-and establish, on the best available information, the most appropriate, timely, targeted and joined-up services to best meet the legal needs of the particular client or client group. Of course these observations are neither new nor limited to the legal assistance sector. For example, in their 2010 Research Report into the Contribution of the Not-for-Profit Sector, the Productivity Commission observed that: ... the very clear message from the sector is that current government tendering, contracting and reporting requirements impose a significant compliance burden and constrained the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. There is a sense of frustration that often these arrangements do not appear to result in improved service delivery outcomes for clients. Further, many in the sector are concerned that current arrangements limit their ability to innovate and respond at a local level to existing and emerging social problems. ii Further, the Commission argued that: Conceptually, having too many funding streams can be inefficient to the extent that it involves avoidable costs for both governments and providers. On the face of it, this suggests that governments should consider the appropriateness and feasibility of joining up funding streams within and across levels of government. However, this issue raises complex questions about agency and program based funding allocations and design and intergovernmental funding arrangements that are best considered on a case-by-case basis and which are outside the scope of this study. iii Options for engagement with government funded services One of the main challenges to implementing effective mechanisms for funding and allocating responsibility for the provision of legal assistance services is determining appropriate models suitable for a flexible and nuanced client-focused approach. While not all legal assistance services are provided by the not-for-profit sector, the discussion of funding models contained in the Productivity Commission's Contribution of the Not-for-Profit Sector report is instructive. Leaving aside operational grants for specific (and generally limited) purposes, the report discusses three key models for funding not-for-profit services to deliver services to the community. The 'client-directed model' generally applies to individual funding for clients to allow them to choose between providers and services. Such a model may be appropriate for many human services in a variety of circumstances, particularly, say, when there is a realistic market of service providers and highly capable or well-supported target recipients of these services. However, in the context of the delivery of legal assistance services, there will be a limited range of legal assistance services available to particular clients in particular locations. Also, when targeting the most disadvantaged who may have less capability and/or support to address their legal problems, this model may not be appropriate in many circumstances. 'Purchase of service contracting', on the other hand, is a model commonly employed in the legal assistance sector and for the funding of the not-for-profit sector to deliver human services more broadly. It involves government agencies contracting with providers to deliver services to eligible clients and to be funded for this. The Productivity Commission iv has argued that the main vi Reshaping legal assistance services: building on the evidence base benefits of this model occur when providers are able to deliver services more cost effectively and with greater innovation than government, and where they can add value through their broader activities. However: these benefits can be substantially eroded as governments become more prescriptive about the processes by which outcomes are achieved and impose heavy-handed tendering, contractual and reporting requirements. v Further: purchase of service contracting is most applicable to the delivery of relatively standardised services for which there is a widespread need in the community. As such it is particularly suited to the rollout of large-scale national programs. Conversely, it can be harder for this model to support enhanced client choice as more tailored and differentiated services are more complex and costly for governments to specify adequately in contract, and for contracts to be monitored and enforced. vi viii Reshaping legal assistance services: building on the evidence base Going forward Much more thought needs to be devoted to this issue of appropriate funding and accountability mechanisms for legal assistance services. The comments I have made are generally directed at the issue of ensuring such mechanisms are sufficiently flexible to allow service providers and policy makers to implement services that are most appropriate to meet the needs of the target groups, based on the latest research and practical realities. Of course, other funding principles will always apply. Commonwealth government procurement of services will generally be subject to overarching procurement frameworks and guidelines. xiii Applying these in such a way as to ensure legal assistance service provision can be most 'fit for the purpose' of meeting the legal needs of disadvantaged people is the challenge. We hope that the review into the Access to Justice Arrangements by the Productivity...
and private solicitors undertaking legal aid work all have a role in meeting the legal needs of d... more and private solicitors undertaking legal aid work all have a role in meeting the legal needs of disadvantaged communities in rural, regional and remote (RRR) parts of NSW. Yet there are reports that staff shortages are affecting the capacity of these services to perform this work-in some areas more than others. In order to gain a 'snapshot' of solicitor availability in RRR areas and to assess any regional differences in their availability to undertake community sector legal work in NSW, the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW has undertaken a census of all public legal assistance positions in NSW. The study examined whether the positions were filled or vacant, how they were filled, and the length of time that they were filled (or vacant). The research also drew upon data from the NSW Law Society and the three main public legal services in NSW to map solicitor availability across NSW against a range of indicators, including socioeconomic disadvantage. In addition, interviews were conducted with solicitors working in (and who had left) 'hard to staff' areas with a view to better understanding differences in the recruitment and retention of solicitors across RRR areas of NSW. The major findings of the Foundation's full research report
Women and children experiencing domestic and family violence benefit when services are integrated... more Women and children experiencing domestic and family violence benefit when services are integrated across sectors. This is especially true for women in rural and regional areas, women with disability, women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, who all face additional barriers to accessing services.
Executive summary 6 Introduction 9 Methodology 10 Respondents and response rate 10 How the legal ... more Executive summary 6 Introduction 9 Methodology 10 Respondents and response rate 10 How the legal and health service data are used in this report 10 Services on the landscape 11 Results 13 The growth of health justice services in Australia 13 The landscape across Australia 14 The service settings 16 The partners 18 People assisted 20 Legal issues addressed 23 Referrals between the health and legal partners 26 Type of legal assistance provided 27 Secondary consultation 28 Coordinated care 29 Cross-disciplinary training 30 Facilitating systems change 31 Activity to support partnering 32 Resourcing 34 Evaluation 38 Implications and next steps 39 References 41 Appendix 1 Methodology 42 Contents In 2018, HJA published Mapping a new path: the health justice landscape in Australia, 2017, a first and foundational profile of the health justice landscape across Australia based on activity up to mid-2017 (Forell, 2018). Using that first survey as a pilot, we now report the findings of the 2018 census, covering services and activities on the health justice landscape in the 2017-2018 financial year.
Uploads
Papers by Suzie Forell