Sector Perspectives: Legal Need in Australia

Governments fund the Australian Legal Assistance Sector to meet the legal need of marginalised and disadvantaged Australians. Without understanding the nature and production of legal need, it is difficult to frame service delivery to meet legal needs, identify, measure and target unmet legal need, or advocate for law reform. The Legal Needs Project research examines the nature of legal need and the mechanisms that generate legal problems in the context of disadvantage. This first phase of the research asks: How does the legal assistance sector (LAS) understand the ‘legal need’ the Government funds it to meet? The question is motivated by a conviction that the people working in the LAS have a deep and diverse knowledge and understanding of the legal issues their clients face, the contexts in which they develop, and the barriers that stop their legal and non-legal needs from being met. This report summarises the results of 24 interviews and three workshops involving 138 national legal assistance sector workers. It reflects a synthesised and conceptualised version of the sector’s expertise and nuanced understanding of legal need.