Legal Aid Research Reports

Funding Legal Aid Report and Media Release

National Legal Aid has commissioned Impact Economics and Policy to develop a funding options paper. This paper examines several options for increased legal assistance funding. It is intended to encourage conversations with government and other stakeholders concerned with legal assistance about what is possible, and to detail the risks and benefits of the options outlined. The options identified include a legal sector levy with a tiered approach based on how much legal assistance work law firms undertake, a social levy utilising gambling revenue and a HECS like loan system.

Justice on the Brink Report and Media Release

National Legal Aid commissioned Impact Economics to provide updated modelling of the 2014 Productivity Commission Access to Justice Report recommendations as they pertain to Legal Aid. This report – Justice on the Brink – estimates that an increase of $484 million in Legal Aid funding per year is required to address the gaps identified in the Productivity Commission Report.

The Report identifies unmet legal need, increasing demand for legal assistance and market supply issues risk due to withdrawal of private practitioners from providing Legal Aid services and recommends investment in expanding legal aid grants, increasing the means test and raising private practitioner fees.

The Benefits of Providing Access to Justice Report and Media Release

A new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, commissioned by National Legal Aid, has found that the provision of legal aid delivers $600 million in savings to the community, government and the justice system.

These savings are demonstrated most noticeably in legal assistance preventing family violence and stopping it from escalating.

The report found that for every $1 invested in legal aid services by the Commonwealth government an equivalent benefit of $2.25 was delivered. More than half these savings ($378 million) were in supporting women and children escaping domestic and family violence.

The Legal Australia-Wide Survey (LAW Survey) Report and Media Release

Commissioned by the eight State and Territory legal aid commissions, the LAW Survey is the largest of its kind ever conducted in the world. The media release, full report and individual sections are available as pdf files.