Data to inform assessment of legal needs in New South Wales
The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of some information and data sources that are useful to consider in conducting a legal needs assessment in New South…
Legal need indicators
Legal need arises when a person has a legal issue, problem, or dispute for which they would in some way benefit from a form of legal assistance or justice system intervention, whether or not they are aware of this. Of people experiencing legal need, some will qualify for publicly funded legal assistance services, due to their personal circumstances. The Foundation has developed a range of resources to assist in the planning and delivery of legal assistance services. For guidance on understanding and locating legal needs, see the Foundation’s Access to Justice Research Hub.
Community profiles
The Foundation collates data for community groups that are most vulnerable to the experience or the impact of legal problems. This is available as downloadable spreadsheets and in dashboards.
Data to inform assessment of legal needs in NSW
Need for Legal Assistance Services (NLAS)
The Foundation’s NLAS indicators count people who are most likely to need and be eligible for legal assistance services if they experience a legal problem. The NLAS indicators provide:
- A measure of potential demand for public legal assistance services
- A picture of the relative distribution of potential legal need across geographic areas
Different NLAS indicators are appropriate for different target client groups.
A data pack and tool to visualise the relative distribution of NLAS indicators can be accessed here:
For further information on NLAS, see the following Foundation reports:
NLAS (Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples)
Updated to complete the suite of NLAS indicators based on the 2021 Census, NLAS(Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples) is intended to support the planning of legal assistance services as…
Introducing NLAS(Language) – 2021 Census
This latest addition to the suite of NLAS indicators is intended to support legal assistance service providers in identifying geographic areas where there is potential demand for translator and interpreter services.
Legal Need Dashboard – Definitions & User Guide
This User Guide incudes Need for Legal Assistance Services (NLAS) indicator definitions and instructions for using the Legal Need Dashboard.
Need for Legal Assistance Services (NLAS) indicators – 2021 Census update
The Foundation’s NLAS(Capability) and NLAS(Community) indicators have been updated with the most recent (2021) Census data, with counts available at various levels of geography. These counts provide a comparative indicator…
An indicator of need for community legal centres: introducing NLAS(CLC), Justice issues paper 29
In August 2018 the NSW government announced that it was adopting an application-based funding model following the Cameron Review of community legal centres and other community-based legal assistance services. The…
Locating demand: updating the Need for Legal Assistance Services indicators: 2016 Census data, Justice issues paper 28
This paper describes the revisions to the 2015 Need for Legal Assistance Services (NLAS) indicators following the release of the 2016 Census data. The NLAS indicators were developed by the…
2018 Collaborative Planning Resource Presentation for NLAF
NSW Legal Assistance Forum Plenary Meeting (21 March 2018) The 2015 Collaborative Planning Resource was funded by the Commonwealth to provide information in support of state and territory planning. It…
Need for legal assistance services: developing a measure for Australia, Justice issues paper 26
This paper describes how the Foundation developed the Need for Legal Assistance (NLAS) indicator which uses census data to assess potential demand by geographic location. It provides a count of…