Our Research Principles
Our research focuses on the legal and related needs of Victorians.
Impact
We undertake useful research to support improved civil legal services for Victorians.
Rigour
We use sound methodologies and rely on clear evidence for any conclusions.
Collaboration
We work in a collaborative way with the legal sector, civil society and others in the interests of access to justice for Victorians.
Communication
We make our reports publicly available and engage with the sector on research activity.
Independence
We maintain our independence.
Discover how people understand and engage with the law
The Public Understanding of Law Survey (PULS) is ground-breaking research to understand legal capability, attitudes, and experience of the law in Victoria.
Our research plan
Our research divided into four streams, which each produce complementary outcomes.
Mapping justice
Looking at the availability and content of institutional data across a broad range of civil justice bodies, to understand how legal matters progress, see possible issues with legal processes and identify barriers to access to justice.
Surveying legal literacy
Discovering what Victorians know about their justice system, its institutions and the role they see it play in their lives.
Researching programs and interventions
Taking a rigorous empirical approach to evaluate the need for different legal services, as well as their processes, impacts and outcomes, so that we can figure out 'what works.'
Coordinating and sharing research
Connecting the justice, community and academic sectors to enable knowledge sharing, encourage collaboration, extend the reach of our work and help us to learn from the experience of local and international experts.
Research projects
Our projects cover institutional and general public perspectives.
The PULS is a Victoria-wide survey to understand how people see, understand and engage with the law.
Exploring targeted and effective people-centred services that are meeting legal needs across the Victorian justice and legal assistance sector.
Research News
Research publications
The third volume reports on the links between legal need and legal capability. It investigates the impact and implications of legal capability on legal problem experience and resolution.
Targeted and tailored engagement is necessary to increase awareness of young people's everyday justiciable problems and available legal help.
For young people, links between employment problems and mental health are particularly strong, with psychological distress a common consequence.
Single parents have been identified as being particularly vulnerable to experiencing multiple substantial legal problems.
Psychological distress and mental illness have been shown to be among the factors most powerfully associated with problems arising in people’s lives that raise legal issues.
Explore the knowledge, skills and attributes that are required to effectively understand and use the law.
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Showcasing access to justice and legal need development
Connecting the justice, community and academic sectors around legal research and evaluation related to access to justice.
Measuring legal capability
Our legal capability measures that can be used to form policy insights is central to our research.
Despite the importance of understanding legal capability, the development of relevant measures is recent.
Measuring different aspects of legal capability is not simple, and approaches will vary. Some things can be asked about directly - for example, specific skills associated with digital capability or functional literacy. Others can’t be observed directly (for example legal confidence or perceived accessibility of lawyers).
This challenge can be addressed by constructing scales to tap into latent traits (in this case, aspects of legal capability) and luckily there is a whole field of study to help with this – psychometrics.
Psychometrics is concerned with the theory and method of measurement, and in particular, measuring things you can’t directly observe. As a result, it is crucial in helping to capture many domains of legal capability.
Legal capability resources
Informing policy and practice
Drawing on our research, we engage with decision makers across the justice and community sectors to share our understanding of the legal experience, needs and capability.
The Research Team
Victoria Law Foundation's highly-skilled research team have many years of experience in legal research.
Studying legal need and capability from every angle, Hugh has worked on several landmark access the justice and legal needs projects.
Previously at the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW for 15 years, Hugh joined Victoria Law Foundation in September 2019 as Principal Researcher, taking on the Research Director role in August 2024. He led the Foundation’s Data Mapping Project, a sustained examination of the use and utility of Victoria’s civil justice data and continues to work on the Public Understanding of Law Survey.
Throughout his career, Hugh has worked closely with legal aid commissions, community legal centres, and state and federal governments, giving him a deep understanding of legal institutions and access to justice issues throughout Australia.
Bridget joined the Victoria Law Foundation in June 2023 as a Senior Researcher. With over 20 years of experience in monitoring, assessment and project management, Bridget is an evaluation specialist. She holds a Master of Public Health from Monash University, and is skilled in quantitative and qualitative measurement and analysis, and building evaluation capacity and systems.
With a background working in international and community not-for-profits, Bridget has led evaluation and research over the last 8 years at Victoria Legal Aid, driving evidence-based practice to underpin the design and delivery of effective, client-centred legal services.
Clare joined the VLF in January 2017 as the Foundation’s legal writer and editor, managing the Foundation’s publications and producing legal content.
Clare joins the research team as a communications and content specialist. She brings a legal background, and extensive content and production experience to the role.
Zhigang joined Victoria Law Foundation in May 2024 as a Data Analyst.
Zhigang has a PhD in criminology from Griffith University and extensive research experience working in various government and non-government organisations. He previously worked at the Australian Institute of Criminology, at the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, where he was one of the authors of the seminal Legal Australia-Wide Survey reports, and more recently, at the NSW Department of Communities and Justice and cohealth.
Zhigang is an expert in data analysis and drawing insights from large, complex datasets. He is also a published author of numerous peer-reviewed research publications.
A New Perspective on Legal Need and Legal Capability is now available
The third report from the Public Understanding of Law Survey explores how attitudes, skills and confidence matter in satisfactorily resolving justiciable issues.