To the PULS and beyond

Last night, we were excited to launch the Public Understanding of Law Survey Volume 3: A New Perspective on Legal Need and Legal Capability. This new report is the culmination of years of work, perseverance, and collaboration from Victoria Law Foundation and the legal sector. We celebrated in style with speeches, conversation and refreshments at the Law Institute of Victoria.

The end of the beginning

Victoria Law Foundation Executive Director Lynne Haultain began by underscoring the significance of releasing Volume 3 of the PULS and the essential service these reports offer. She celebrated the contributions of the VLF Research Team, with a special mention of Professor Nigel Balmer. As the Inaugural Research Director at Victoria Law Foundation, he has left an enduring impact with this significant body of work.

Lynne highlighted that the detailed insights provided by the PULS on legal capability and legal need are valuable for determining the future direction of legal reforms. "Grasping what the PULS tells us in all its fine and pixelated detail is essential to where we go next in legal service provision across Victoria and beyond.”

She also acknowledged the collective effort required to produce such a comprehensive report, expressing gratitude to Victoria Legal Aid and Victorian Legal Servies Board + Commissioner for their funding, as well as the VLF Board Research Subgroup, the PULS Steering Group, the Advisory and Working Groups, and the dedicated authors—Professor Nigel Balmer, Professor Pascoe Pleasence, Dr Hugh McDonald, and Professor Rebecca Sandefur. "It takes a village to raise a report like this," she concluded, recognising the collaborative effort that made the PULS project possible.

Contributing a chapter to the narrative of legal need

The PULS is just one of the many research projects that contributes to a legal need narrative extending back to the 1960s. Over the decades, research has driven significant legal reforms across Australia to improve access to justice.

“We’ve seen specialist bodies minted, rights movements developed, and attempts to demystify the law,” VLF Research Director Dr Hugh McDonald recounted. “Yet PULS Volume 1 demonstrates legal need is high. It’s the norm for most people. After 50 years of reform, how can this be?”

An important missing link revealed by the PULS Volume 2 is legal capability. The study of legal capability provided a new perspective that helps to explain behaviour and access to justice, including helping to account for why many reforms have been more muted than hoped by the legal sector.

“This new perspective can unlock further reforms, system design and practice; and appears critical to harness new technology and established multifaceted approaches, to better meet the legal need and capability of the whole community.” – Dr Hugh McDonald

Hugh also announced that the full PULS dataset will be published online and made available to all. “The data set is rich, the data set is deep, and there’s a lot more we can do with the data,” he encouraged, “We invite others to continue the PULS journey analysing and using the dataset to improve access to justice.”

Significant gaps in access to justice revealed

The release of the latest report integrates the findings from Volumes 1 and 2 to offer an analysis of legal need and capability, unveiling crucial new insights aimed at improving access to justice. Professor Nigel Balmer highlighted key findings of the PULS Volume 3, noting its shift in focus.

“Volume 3 serves as a nexus of the first two reports. It consolidates what we’ve learnt about legal need and legal capability to provide a new perspective on access to justice.”

The PULS shows a significant disconnect between legal service provision and the public’s actual legal needs. The potential for a vicious cycle emerged from the data: low levels of legal capability prevent individuals from accessing the services they need and fully benefiting from the legal system.

Furthermore, the PULS demonstrates that concerns don’t end once someone obtains legal advice, and what people actually do and achieve from assistance they get needs to be considered. The PULS data shows us that there is much more to learn about what work to successfully meet community legal need.  

Professor Balmer said that for the justice system to provide the best value, it must mirror the diverse legal problem-solving behaviour and legal capabilities of the community. “In very simple terms, PULS Volume 3 demonstrates the inequality of legal capability is right at the heart of inequality of justice,” he explains. “Consequently, if you want to meet legal needs and resolve problems, you need to understand and respond to diverse capabilities.”

He also expressed gratitude to the 6,008 Victorians who shared their experiences, some of which were the most challenging episodes of their lives. Professor Balmer urged those attending the launch to ensure it was respondent time well spent, and that their contributions and data lead to tangible improvements in service provision.

New concepts, new potential

Volume 3 of the PULS raises profound questions about how services are delivered, and clearly identifies legal capability as part of the answer. By developing interventions with legal capability in mind, there is real opportunity for legal services to better meet legal need and potentially make more effective and efficient use of finite resources.

We encourage you to find out more about the PULS Volume 3’s key findings and to do your part to improve access to justice in Victoria.

If you have any questions about the findings or the data, please contact our Research Team with your query.

Thank you to everyone who attended the launch. Let’s see what we can do!

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