Hotspots of Legal Need

Hotspots of legal need

Summary

The research paper identifies which postcodes in Victoria attract the highest usage of VLA services. Any existing or emerging hotspots of legal need were identified. The research relies on data from all past VLA clients (in office, via outreach or telephone advice and information) spanning the years 2010-2014.

The top metropolitan and regional postcodes that have provided the most total unique clients in the research are identified as including 3350 (Ballarat), 3550 (Bendigo), 3214 (Geelong) and 3630 (Shepparton), as well as 3175 (Dandenong), 3021 (Brimbank), 3199 (Frankston) and 3977 (Casey).

Postcodes trending upward in terms of VLA clients and activities over the past three years were characterised as emerging hotspots of legal need. Where a number of postcodes within the same LGA appear to attract higher rates of VLA activity, that wider area is identified as a hotspot of legal need. Such areas include Whittlesea, Brimbank, Geelong, Latrobe and Melton areas. Areas such as Mildura and Wodonga have tended to be seen as hotspots of unmet legal need and in this study exhibited a large number of office/outreach clientele.

Executive summary

The research was conducted with the aim of identifying which postcodes in Victoria attract the highest usage of VLA services. It was intended that any existing or emerging hotspots of legal need in Victoria would be identifiable from the research. The research references data from all past VLA clients (in office or via outreach) and all past telephone advice sessions, spanning the July 2010 to July 2013 completed financial years as well as the incomplete 2013-2014 financial year. Both metropolitan and regional postcodes are explored. The top metropolitan and regional postcodes that have provided the most total unique clients in the research are identified as including 3350 (Ballarat), 3550 (Bendigo), 3214 (Geelong) and 3630 (Shepparton), as well as 3175 (Dandenong), 3021 (Brimbank), 3199 (Frankston) and 3977 (Casey), among others. According to this data, VLA offices have been rightly positioned in larger regional centres and more populous metropolitan areas, in order to meet existing high demand for legal assistance in these hubs. The disadvantage that tends to cluster in city-like localities provides further support to the need for maintaining the VLA offices in their existing locations. The research has identified that postcodes constituting regional hubs or more populous metropolitan suburbs and exhibit correlating disadvantage are producing the largest numbers of regular VLA clients.

Population was also taken into consideration to identify which postcode and Local Government Area localities outside of the top five may disproportionately use VLA services generally with regard to their size. Postcodes trending upward in terms of VLA clients and activities over the past three years were characterised as emerging hotspots of legal need. Where a number of postcodes within the same LGA appear to attract higher rates of VLA activity, that wider area is identified as a hotspot of legal need. Such areas include Whittlesea, Brimbank, Geelong, Latrobe and Melton areas. Areas such as Mildura and Wodonga have tended to be seen as hotspots of unmet legal need and in this study exhibited a large number of office/outreach clientele. However, these areas did not generate a high number of Legal Help calls, which may be attributable to lack of knowledge about the service. The demographics and environmental factors of each locality are explored to gain an understanding as to why the enhanced or emerging need has materialised.

In the various areas of law covered by VLA, certain areas did produce standout results. For example, family law matters increased in Casey but decreased in Brimbank postcodes over the past three and a half years studied. Dandenong and Brimbank ranked highly in criminal matters over the time frame, while civil law matters were dominated by Warrnambool’s main postcode.

Figures from VLA’s Legal Help telephone service are considered separately. It was anticipated that Legal Help as a free and accessible telephone advice service might attract a different demographic of clients and thereby the numbers might cluster in different areas. Particularly regional areas were expected to attract higher numbers of Legal Help calls, given their isolation from VLA offices and the limited access to other forms of legal assistance. However, even after taking population into account, Legal Help calls were far more prolific from metropolitan areas than from regional areas. This may be attributable to better knowledge distribution via advertising and word of mouth in metropolitan Victoria.

Contents

Executive summary

Contents

Regional and metropolitan areas

Map key

Shortened Forms

Postcode Index

Introduction

Context

Methodology

Limitations

Outline

Discussion

Regional areas

Regional and metropolitan areas

Image source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘SBFA 2011’, (ABS Census statistics on Google Earth 2011)

Map key

Hotspots of legal need (LGAs) =

Index for Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage (Socio-Economic Indicators For Areas) scale usedby the accompanying maps to show disadvantage in Victoria:

Shortened Forms

ABS: Australian Bureau of Statistics

CLC:Community Legal Centre

IRSD: Index for Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (one of the SEIFA index measures of disadvantage)

LGA: Local government area

POA: Postal area (an ABS equivalent to postcode)

SEIFA: Socio-economic indexes for areas

VLA:Victoria Legal Aid

Postcode Index

PostcodeLGAExample of Suburbs

3350BallaratBallarat CBD, Bakery Hill, Sovereign Hill

3550Greater BendigoBendigo CBD, Strathdale, Kennington, Long Gully, Ironbark

3214Greater GeelongCorio, Norlane, NorthShore

3220Greater GeelongGeelong CBD, Newtown, South Geelong

3840LatrobeMorwell, Hazelwood, Driffield, Jeeralang, Maryvale

3037MeltonCalderPark, Delahey, Taylors Hill, Sydenham, Hillside

3337MeltonMelton, Melton West, Toolern Vale, Kurunjang

3500MilduraMildura, Buronga

3630Greater SheppartonShepparton CBD, Caniambo

3280WarrnamboolWarrnambool, Dennington, Minjah

3689WodongaWodonga

3021BrimbankSt Albans, KingsPark, Albanvale, Kealba

3810CardiniaPakenham, Pakenham Upper and South, Rythdale

3977CaseyCranbourne (all), Cannons Creek, Five Ways, JunctionVillage

3073DarebinReservoir

3072DarebinPreston, Gilberton, Regent West, Northland

3175Greater DandenongDandenong, Bangholme

3199FrankstonFrankston, Frankston South

3048HumeCoolaroo, MeadowHeights

3064HumeCraigieburn, Donnybrook, RoxburghPark

3134MaroondahRingwood, Ringwood North, Warranwood, Warrandyte South

3075WhittleseaLalor

3754WhittleseaMernda, Doreen

3030WyndhamWerribee, Point Cook, Cocoroc, Derrimut, Chartwell

3029WyndhamHoppers Crossing, Tarneit, Truganina

Introduction

VLA aims to provide access to justice for those who would not otherwise have the means to protect their legal rights or respond to claims about their legal responsibilities. VLA identifies a range of clients as their “priority” and primarily focuses on assisting these groups of clients with their legal affairs. “Priority” clients include clients with a low income, those who identify as Indigenous and those who are geographically isolated, among other forms of disadvantage.[1] The organisation has three key focus areas of law, those being family, criminal and civil law. VLA has 14 offices across Victoria as well as a telephone advice service called “Legal Help”, which any member of the public can contact for advice at the cost of a local call. The VLA offices are dispersed across regional and metropolitan Victoria, and the open availability of the “Legal Help” telephone service means that the services provided by VLA are ultimately accessible throughout the state.

Equal access to justice is an aspirational principle enshrined in legislation and crucial to the unwritten law and order of society. Justice Ronald Sackville described access to justice as the proposition that all people should have the means of protecting their rights under the law.[2] These rights and responsibilities are forever changing, as the law develops and societal responses to the law evolve. Furthering access to justice is one of VLA’s key objectives, according to section 4 of the Legal Aid Act.[3]It is an essential concern for the Australian government because international law compels action toward maintaining and improving access to justice for all people. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights mandates that signatory countries, such as Australia, work towards establishing equal and widespread access to justice.[4] The notion of improving access to justice challenges the question of whether universal equality before the law exists at present, by implying that some citizens do not yet have access to fully exercise their legal rights.[5] In reality, universal access to equality is a fallacy, as poor and disadvantaged people may have legal remedies available in theory but are not able to access these due to systemic barriers resulting from their disadvantage.[6] VLA provides fundamental access to justice, especially for priority clients who are poor or disadvantaged and accordingly do not have the finances, knowledge or skills to engage their rights under the law.

Context

Geographic location is one factor in society that regularly impairs access to justice. Measures for improving access to justice must focus not only on the economically disadvantaged but also on the widespread administration of justice into areas where physical accessibility is at issue.[7] Place is doubly important, in that geographic location might be a shared characteristic for members of groups of people who lack access to justice, even where the reason for the lack of access is socio-economic rather than geographic.[8] While regional areas suffer from lack of physical access to justice, cities may find that the structure of urban life excludes poor and disadvantaged people from certain opportunities, such as the attainment of justice.[9]That is, geographic isolation might be the reason behind a lack of access to justice or alternatively, people with shared characteristics might be clustered in a particular geographic location (isolated or otherwise) because of their socio-economic status and restricted access to justice.[10] It is known that legal problems tend to cluster together in their location and that groups with characteristics of disadvantage are likely to face multiple legal problems in their lifetime.[11]Ideologically, legal empowerment should not be spatially dependent – although this is not true in reality, where there are blatant geographic divergences in the way that the law is administered, as the system fails both isolated and disadvantaged communities.[12] While it is essential that the legal system generally becomes more inclusive, it is imperative that VLA as a beacon for access to justice continually evaluates the locations of Victorians with serious legal needs to ensure that clusters of legal need can be serviced.

Place is not just a context for legal rights and responsibilities. In fact, the characteristics of a place are often fundamental to the way in which rights and responsibilities are realised or ignored in that location.[13]This report aims to identify emerging and existing hotspots of legal need in Victoria, by analysing VLA client activity and telephone session data. It is hypothesised that the data will assert that VLA offices and outreach services are appropriately positioned and structured to meet the needs of less fortunate people, given that the intention in setting up the organisation was to satisfy the most dire and concentrated legal problems in the state. The report will work toward gaining an understanding of the detailed social and economic factors at play to create legal need in each of these key localities. Human geography involves this process of inquiryas to the reasons for a phenomenon becoming evident in a particular area.[14]The Legal Australia Wide Survey recommended that geographic clustering of legal problems deserves holistic service provision tailored to serve the specific needs of that area.[15]VLA is already rolling out holistic service provision schemes throughout the organisation, a tack that will be particularly useful in these hotspot areas.[16]The combination of geography and legal studies can develop VLA’s utilisation of space and assist the organisation to continue improving widespread access to justice.[17] In the event that the data identifies emerging hotspots of legal need and increasing numbers of clientele, VLA can tailor their services to those areas, such as through increased outreach or promotion of the Legal Help telephone service.

Methodology

This report is based upon client data compiled by VLA since 2010, including each completed financial year and the first six months of the present financial year (so three and a half years in total are covered). Comparative data on demographics and population are used throughout the report to provide an understanding of the contextual factors that might lead to higher levels of need for VLA services in certain postcode areas. The Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) has also been considered where relevant to provide an understanding of disadvantage levels in each of the areas. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) defines disadvantage for the purposes of discussing SEIFA as “people’s access to material and social resources, and their ability to participate in society.”[18] Although there are a number of SEIFA scales, this report has used the Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage (IRSD) because it compares the disadvantage of areas in Australia on a scale from one to ten, with those areas in the first decile the most disadvantaged and those in the tenth decile the least disadvantaged. This index is available for postcode, which made it particularly useful for the purposes of this research.

Limitations

The data has been separated into postcodes to gain an understanding of the more concentrated areas of VLA clients and legal need in Victoria. Population is used in this research to provide perspective on the raw data. Postcode, however, is not a common method of measuring data and accordingly it is difficult to obtain population data for postcode. However, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released data on Postal Areas (POAs) which are approximately equivalent to postcode.[19] The most recent release of POA population numbers is the 2011 Census data. While somewhat dated now, for the purpose of identifying areas attracting disproportionate use of VLA services, the 2011 population figures are sufficient.

The definition of legal need as discussed throughout this paper is limited to the legal need that manifests in a person’s contact with VLA. That is, conclusions are limited to expressed need (active requests for assistance) rather than measured need (where a person may not know legal assistance is needed or warranted).[20]If there is no legal service in a particular location it is impossible to predict whether legal needs would surface if the service were available.[21] This paper acknowledges that many people and groups with serious legal needs may never contact VLA and others may not be able to identify that their need is legal in the first place.An analysis of broad legal need in Victoria is beyond the scope of this paper, as this research is limited to an investigation of the existing and emerging locations of VLA clientele.

Outline

This report by necessity considers metropolitan and regional areas separately, given the vast differences between the two social landscapes. Regional areas tend to have a larger proportion of the disadvantaged groups in Victoria, however on balance metropolitan areas tend to have more concentrated clusters of disadvantage.[22] Investigation begins with analysis of the top ranking postcodes (in terms of total clients) for both metropolitan and regional areas as well as hypotheses as to the phenomenon seeing particular postcodes rise to the top. To provide perspective on these raw figures, the report then explores postcodes that disproportionately bring in large numbers of clients to VLA, relative to their population. Legal Help telephone data measured by the number of sessions engaged by each postcode helpfully identifies areas where access to a VLA office might be a barrier for residents. Finally, a number of areas in Victoria emerging as hotspots of legal need are identified in a general sense from looking at both client and Legal Help session data.

Discussion

Regional areas

VLA has a number of offices and outreach services which service regional Victoria. Geographic isolation in terms of distances and limited transportation methods to visit major cities means that VLA is often the only accessible legal service for some clients, whether it is a direct service (office or outreach) or the telephone advice facility.[23] Even where there are other legal avenues in a geographically isolated area, there are numerous considerations in determining whether adequate access to justice is available, as there will often be enhanced problems relating to conflicts of interests, niche expertise and services for minority groups.[24] VLA data that shows postcodes generating a high number of clients may be useful in targeting outreach to particular regional areas and affirming the importance of existing regional offices.

Hotspots of Legal Need

Summary

The top metropolitan and regional postcodes that have provided the most total unique clients in the research are identified as including 3350 (Ballarat), 3550 (Bendigo), 3214 (Geelong) and 3630 (Shepparton), as well as 3175 (Dandenong), 3021 (Brimbank), 3199 (Frankston) and 3977 (Casey).

Executive summary

Regional and metropolitan areas

Map key

Shortened Forms

Postcode Index

Introduction

Context

Methodology

Limitations

Outline

Discussion

Regional areas

Top ranking postcodes