Legal Services Agency

In 2006 the Legal Services Agency undertook a National Survey of Unmet Legal Needs and Access to Services (a comprehensive legal needs assessment). It was the Agency’s first national research and randomly interviewed 7,200 people throughout New Zealand, via telephone.

The national survey results were reported in November 2006 - you can view them here (pdf 606kb)

View the media release (pdf 18kb) that accompanied the publication of the report.

Regional analyses of the results are available here. Specific analysis of the results for some specific communities is now available including analyses of the results for Maori, Pacific peoples and youth.

In order to meet one of the key objectives of the survey, it was necessary to define the concepts of “legal need” and “unmet legal need” in a quantitative way for the sole purpose of the survey. The technical paper defining these terms is available here (pdf 62kb) .

The objectives of the survey were to:

• Measure the prevalence and types of legal problems in New Zealand over a 12 month period
• Measure the level(s) of met and unmet legal need.
• Measure access to different types of legal services.
• Identify the characteristics and locations of people both using legal services and people with unmet legal need.
• Better understand the reasons why some people do not access legal services and the outcomes of that inaction.
• Identify the barriers to legal information, advice and representation to help develop better service design and delivery.

The sample of 7,200 people included ethnicity boosters and is statistically valid on a national, regional and (within Auckland) sub-regional basis. It is also large enough to provide detailed information and allow the examination of discrete communities of interest.

The Minister for Justice, Mark Burton’s press release announced the start of the survey.

Further information about the national survey is available from info@lsa.govt.nz