Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Parliament of Australia, Inquiry into Legal Aid and Access to Justice, 8 June 2004, Ch 8 <http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate_Committees?url=legcon_ctte/completed_inquiries/2002-04/legalaidjustice/index.htm>; ALRC, Review of the Federal Civil Justice System, Discussion Paper 62 (1999) <http://www.alrc.gov.au/dp-62>; ALRC, Managing Justice: A Review of the Federal Civil Justice System, Report No 89 (2000) <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/alrc/publications/reports/89/>; GazeBeth & HunterRosemary, ‘Access to Justice for Discrimination Complainants: Courts and Legal Representation’ (2009) 32UNSW Law Journal699; KirbyMichael, ‘Law and Justice in Australia: Room for Improvement’ (2004) 4(2) QUT Law and Justice Journal1; NooneMary Anne, ‘The State of Australian Legal Aid’ (2001) 37Federal Law Review29; SackvilleRonald, ‘Access to Justice: Towards an Integrated Approach’ (2001) 10(2) Judicial Review221; SchetzerLou, ‘Community Legal Centres: Resilience and Diversity in the Face of a Changing Policy Environment’ (2003) 31Alternative Law Journal159.
2.
SmithMarisol & PatelAsh, ‘Using Monitoring Data: Examining Community Legal Advice Centres Delivery’ (Legal Services Commission, London, June 2010).
3.
This refers to the full range of services provided by Legal Aid Commissions, Community Legal Centres, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and Family Violence Prevention Services.
4.
TrudeAdeline and GibbsJulie, ‘Review of Quality Issues in Legal Advice: Measuring and costing quality in asylum work’ (Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees, March 2010).
5.
In Victoria, family violence incidents have increased since 1999–2000 by 109 per cent in 2011. There has been an increase in the laying of criminal charges from one in six in 1999–2000, to one in three in 2010–2011. Intervention Orders finalised since 1999–2000 have increased by 144 per cent. On their own, the statistics look as if there has been a significant increase in family violence. However, since implementation of the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (2008–09 to 2010–11) and changes in policing, court responses and support for victims, there has been an increase in family violence incident reports to police and finalised family violence intervention order applications at court.
6.
CurranLiz, ‘We can see there's light at the end of the tunnel now: Demonstrating and Ensuring Quality Service to Clients’ (LAACT, 2012). The Curran Report including the research methodology, survey data and findings is on LAACT's website for agencies to examine and adapt <http://www.legalaidact.org.au>.
7.
Ibid1–8.
8.
O'BrienRory, An Overview of the Methodological Approach of Action Research (1998) <http://www.web.net/∼robrien/papers/arfinal.html>; McCutcheonGail and JungBurga, ‘Alternative Perspectives on Action Research’ (1990) 29(3) Theory into Practice144; DickBob, Action Research Tools (Action Research & Action Learning, 8 May 2011) <http://www.aral.com.au/resources/arphome.html>.
9.
KusekJody Z and RistRay C, ‘Ten Steps to a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation System: A Handbook for Development Practitioners’ (The World Bank, 2004) 59.
10.
Overview of the UNDP's Approach to Measuring Capacity, United Nations Development Programme (‘UNDP’) (June 2010) 10. The UNDP approach highlights difficulties of measuring outcomes/results and the scarcity of such research. See also Smith and Patel, above n 2, and Trude & Gibbs, above n 4. See especially, for a review of the literature, CurranLiz, A Literature Review: Examining the literature on how to measure the ‘successful outcomes’: Quality, effectiveness and efficiency of Legal Assistance Services (2012) http://www.ag.gov.au/LegalSystem/Legalaidprograms/Documents/Literature%20review%20of%20legal%20assistance%20by%20Dr%20Liz%20Curran.pdf.
11.
A further six-monthly snapshot was conducted in June 2012 and a third is underway using the methodology developed in the research. Thereafter snapshots of all service areas of LAACT will be conducted at least annually.
12.
This was the only unsuccessful instrument: client call back rates were low. Staff attributed this to clients' desire to put their cases behind them and ‘move on’.
