Concentrating Disadvantage : a working paper on heightened vulnerability to multiple legal problems
- NSW Law and Justice Foundation of NSW 2013
- 7 pages
Legal Australia-Wide (LAW) Survey found that some demographic groups, including many disadvantaged groups, had heightened vulnerability to multiple legal problems. New analyses of the LAW Survey national data set using new measures of multiple disadvantage show that as disadvantage becomes increasingly ‘concentrated’, vulnerability to multiple legal problems ‘compounds’. Respondents with multiple disadvantage reported a greater number of legal problems and substantial legal problems. Importantly, each additional indicator of disadvantage was found to have an ‘additive effect’ that increased the average number of legal problems and substantial legal problems reported. The findings further underscore the importance of more intensive and integrated legal service provision for people with heightened vulnerability to multiple legal problems, and particularly for people with multiple disadvantage. They also indicate that the use of diagnostic instruments, such as a ‘legal health check’, is likely to enhance the systematic diagnosis, triage and referral of client legal problems in a range of service settings.