Understand better justice
Data and empirical evidence to help understand access to justice and build a better justice system.
Research to understand legal need and capability
Our research focuses on the legal and related needs of Victorians, and over time, will make a significant contribution to the Victorian justice system.
Our Research Principles
Impact
We undertake useful research to support improved civil legal services for Victorians.
Rigour
We use sound methodologies and rely on clear evidence for any conclusions.
Collaboration
We work in a collaborative way with the legal sector, civil society and others in the interests of access to justice for Victorians.
Communication
We make our reports publicly available and engage with the sector on research activity.
Independence
We maintain our independence.
Our research plan
Our research program is divided into four streams, which will each produce complementary outcomes.
Mapping justice
We will map the availability and content of institutional data across a broad range of civil justice bodies, including courts, tribunals and the legal assistance sector, so that we can understand how legal matters progress, see possible issues with legal processes and identify barriers to access to justice.
Surveying legal literacy
We will conduct a Victoria-wide Public Understanding of Law Survey (PULS) to discover what Victorians know about their justice system, its institutions and the role they see it play in their lives.
Researching programs and interventions
We will take a rigorous empirical approach to evaluate the need for different legal services, as well as their processes, impacts and outcomes, so that we can figure out 'what works.'
Coordinating and sharing research
We will build a network connecting the justice, community and academic sectors to enable knowledge sharing, encourage collaboration, extend the reach of our work and help us to learn from the experience of local and international experts.
Research projects
Our projects cover institutional and general public perspectives.
The PULS is a Victoria-wide survey to understand how people see, understand and engage with the law.
A survey of the community legal centre workforce across Victoria.
Showcasing access to justice and legal need development
Connecting the justice, community and academic sectors around legal research and evaluation related to access to justice.
Research publications
Examining the factors that influence the pricing of legal services, how practitioners communicate costs, and how they affect the lawyer-client relationship.
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This first volume updates the broad picture of access to justice and legal need, explores how justiciable problems are experienced, what people do about them, and how they progress and conclude.
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Examining the use and utility of administrative data in Victoria’s civil justice system.
This report is intended to act as a detailed record of the methodological approach used in delivering the PULS survey.
Examining the use and utility of administrative data in dispute and complaint resolution bodies in Victoria.
Building and sustaining the community legal centre workforce.
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Measuring legal capability
Developing legal capability measures and using them to form policy insights is central to our research.
Despite the importance of understanding legal capability, the development of relevant measures is recent.
Measuring different aspects of legal capability is not simple, and approaches will vary. Some things can be asked about directly - for example, specific skills associated with digital capability or functional literacy. Others can’t be observed directly (for example legal confidence or perceived accessibility of lawyers).
This challenge can be addressed by constructing scales to tap into latent traits (in this case, aspects of legal capability) and luckily there is a whole field of study to help with this – psychometrics.
Psychometrics is concerned with the theory and method of measurement, and in particular, measuring things you can’t directly observe. As a result, it is crucial in helping to capture many domains of legal capability.
Meet the Research Team
Victoria Law Foundation's highly-skilled research team have many years of experience in legal research.
Nigel joined the VLF in December 2018 as its inaugural Research Director. He has been conducting empirical research for over twenty years and is expert in the application of social science and modern quantitative methods to explore how the public understand and interact with the law.
Nigel’s research includes work on the role of law in everyday life; attitudes to justice; public experience of and response to legal issues; the interaction between legal and health problems; and design of legal services and legal aid. He is best known for his work on legal need surveys around the world, including recent guidance supporting global access to justice initiatives under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 16. Nigel is also Professor of Law and Social Statistics at University College London.
Hugh joined the Foundation in September 2019 as Principal Researcher. He previously worked at the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, on several landmark access to justice and legal need projects.
Throughout his career, he has worked closely with legal aid commissions, community legal centres, state and federal governments, giving him a deep understanding of legal institutions and access to justice issues throughout Australia.
Bridget joined the Victoria Law Foundation in June 2023 as a Senior Researcher. With over 20 years of experience in monitoring, assessment and project management, Bridget is an evaluation specialist. She holds a Master of Public Health from Monash University, and is skilled in quantitative and qualitative measurement and analysis, and building evaluation capacity and systems.
With a background working in international and community not-for-profits, Bridget has led evaluation and research over the last 8 years at Victoria Legal Aid, driving evidence-based practice to underpin the design and delivery of effective, client-centred legal services.
Discover how people understand and engage with the law
The Public Understanding of Law Survey (PULS) is ground-breaking research to understand legal capability, attitudes, and experience of the law in Victoria.