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Measuring legal capability
Justice and the Capability to Function in Society
Pascoe Pleasence and Nigel Balmer discuss the place of legal capability in the global tradition of legal needs surveys. They set out the importance of understanding legal capability in informing “bottom-up” access to justice policy.
Paper
Research
Measuring legal capability
Financial Capability Research in Australia
Roslyn Russell, Jozica Kutin and Tracey Marriner provide a snapshot of Australian research landscape on financial capability – a closely related field to legal capability.
Paper
Research
Measuring legal capability
Reshaping Legal Assistance Services: Building on the Evidence Base
Pascoe Pleasence, Christine Coumarelos, Suzie Forell, and Hugh McDonald review evidence demonstrating how legal problem-solving is patterned by people’s circumstances and explore how the concept of legal capability helps explain research findings. They also discuss how legal assistance can be better matched to the legal needs and capability of diverse users.
Paper
Research
Measuring legal capability
Wrong about Rights: Public Knowledge of Key Areas of Consumer, Housing and Employment Law in England and Wales
Article by Pascoe Pleasence, Nigel Balmer and Catrina Denvir examining public knowledge of rights - a key dimension of capability - in key areas relating to consumer, housing and employment law.
Article
Research
Measuring legal capability
Assessing Access to Justice: How Much “Legal” Do People Need and How Can We Know?
Hugh McDonald discusses how the shift to user-centric approaches to access to justice and legal needs requires a commensurate shift in the empirical methods and measures used to assess access to justice.
Paper
Research
Measuring legal capability
Legal Capability and Inaction for Legal Problems: Knowledge, Stress and Cost
Hugh McDonald and Julie People use Australian national legal needs survey data to examine how knowledge, stress and cost factors whether people take action in response to legal problems. The findings show how deficiencies in legal capability can manifest a ‘paralysing’ effect resulting in inaction.
Paper
Research
Measuring legal capability
Understanding legal capability
Legal capability is the capability to achieve fair outcomes to problems involving law.
Guide
Research
Measuring legal capability
Perceived Inaccessibility of Courts (PIC) Scale
A simple to administer 10-item scale designed to measure extent to which people think of courts as inaccessible.
Research tool
Research
Measuring legal capability
Perceived Inaccessibility of Lawyers (PIL) Scale
A simple to administer 10-item scale designed to measure the extent to which people think of lawyers as inaccessible.
Research tool
Research
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The Australian Constitution
Notes for Legal Studies students on the "People and the Australian Constitution" section of the Study Design - updated as of June 2025.
Study Notes
Learn
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The Education Blog
Check out the Parliament of Victoria's latest news and updates for teachers, supporting civics education in Victorian classrooms.
Website
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Refugees and asylum seekers
Disability
Legal information, translations and accessibility supports
Get a behind-the-scenes look at Victoria Legal Aid's recent work in creating accessibility supports for information on their website Meet the team behind the information and hear about the research and consultation that went into making accessible content for people who need communication supports, including easy read, Auslan and translations
Video
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Legal writing
Parliamentary Counsel Plain English Manual
A guide to legislative drafting by the Australian Government.
Guide
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Plain language
Meeting the information needs of litigants
A research report examining the information needs of self-represented litigants in England and Wales.
Report
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Plain language: the underlying research
A paper outlining the underlying research that underpins plain language practice.
Report
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Legal Glossary
Guide
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Podcasting - the basics
Slides from a Better Information Workshop presentation on the basics of podcasting.
Presentation
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Refugees and asylum seekers
Legal information in languages other than English
A report providing recommendations and best practice examples for developing resources in languages other than English.
Report
Learn
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Plain language checklist: five steps to plain language
A quick and easy guide to making sure your writing meets the fundamentals of plain language.
Article
Learn
Better information
Sharing your research findings effectively
Slides from a Better Information Workshop on sharing your research findings effectively.
Presentation
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Better information
Sharing your research findings effectively video
Full video recording of Better Information Workshop: Sharing your research findings effectively
Video
Learn
Legal writing
Better information handbook
A guide to the principles of plain language that contains practical, step-by-step publishing advice.
Guide
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Family violence
Peer-to-peer education: working with community on tough legal problems
Learn about a case study of a successful peer to peer education project that was recently completed in Hume LGA, addressing the issue of family violence in the area.
Video
Learn
Better information
Engagement
The good, the bad and the unmuted – Tips & tools for running a successful webinar
In this webinar recording, we provided tips and tools for delivering a successful webinar – and avoiding common pitfalls.
Video
Learn
New research explores what works to meet people’s legal needs
Measure for Measure: A People‑Centred Approach to Tailoring Justice, provides an important snapshot and analysis of what works to move the needle in accessing and providing justice.