Mapping changes in the access to civil justice of average Australians: An analysis and empirical survey

Access to justice’ is a phrase in increasing usage in contemporary debates about the Australian civil justice system. The authors examine the concept of access to civil justice, why it is important and the obstacles to same, before reporting the results of their empirical survey on changes in access to civil justice of average Australians. They report on significant areas of legal problems, their impact, most popular legal services sought and perceptions of changes in access. The latter includes effects of innovations such as no-win-no-fee, class actions and third-party litigation funding. They also report findings on public desire to be informed of legal rights of action, differences in problems in inner-city, suburban and rural settings as well as the production of index numbers for levels of access in particular legal problem types.