THE VALUE OF DATA IN CLIENT-CENTRED SERVICE DESIGN

Catriona Mirrlees-Black & Sarah Randell Reshaping Justice: Client-centred service delivery, technology and innovation Research Symposium, 20 June 2017, Sydney NSW.

With special thanks to our data providers: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Government Attorney General’s Department, Legal Aid NSW, Community Legal Centres NSW, LawAccess NSW, NSW Courts and Tribunal Service.

EXAMPLES OF THE FOUNDATION’S WORK USING OFFICIAL DATA AND ADMINISTRATIVE DATA

Using census data to map the distribution of legal need by geographic location

Using legal assistance service data to compare service provision to potential need

Using court and tribunal data to understand what types of parties are bringing claims, and whom they are bringing them against

USING DATA TO TARGET RESOURCES WHERE THE NEED FOR LEGAL SERVICES IS GREATEST

Introducing the Foundation’s Need for Legal Assistance (NLAS) indicator: the number of people who are likely to require the assistance of a public legal assistance service, should they experience a legal problem

NLAS(Capability) uses census data to count how many residents aged 15-64 have a low level of education and have a low personal income

NLAS(Indigenous) counts how many residents identify as Indigenous and have a low level of personal income

NLAS(CALD) counts how many residents identify as not having English as their first language and have a low level of personal income

THE NLAS(CAPABILITY) POPULATION OF AUSTRALIA

• Larger circles = larger number resident in postcode

■ Darker shaded areas = higher rate in region

THE NLAS(CAPABILITY) POPULATION OF POTTS POINT – WOOLLOOMOOLOO

■ Darker shaded areas = higher number/rate in region

WHERE ARE LEGAL ASSISTANCE SERVICES BEING DELIVERED?

Number of legal assistance services delivered (information, advice and casework)

Number of different types of problem experienced (types within: civil, criminal and family)

Types of client assisted (gender, age, indigenous status)

Referral to other services

Introducing the Foundation’s Legal Assistance Service Data Digest (LASDD)

The LASDD collates data from Law Access NSW, Legal Aid NSW and NSW Community Legal Centres to provide:

NUMBER OF LEGAL ASSISTANCE SERVICES BY POSTCODE IN NSW

The darker the area the greater the number of primary services delivered by Law Access, Legal Aid & Community Legal Centres

NUMBER OF LEGAL ASSISTANCE SERVICES PER 100 NLAS(CAPABILITY) RESIDENTS OF NSW POSTCODES – advice and casework only; clients aged 15-64

THE FOUNDATION’S REVIEW OF CIVIL DATA FROM THE NSW COURTS & TRIBUNALS

For each question: What data is collected? How is it best analysed? How reliable is it? How could it be

enhanced?

Questions asked of the data for each NSW Court & Tribunal: What are the cases about? What is the monetary value of cases? Who are the parties? Are the parties represented? Are the cases defended? How do cases progress? What are the outcomes of cases? How long do cases take?

WHAT DOES CIVIL COURT & TRIBUNAL DATA TELL US ABOUT THE PARTIES TO CASES?

Currently restricted to: Name & address (sometimes only of legal rep) Organisation or individual (with varying accuracy) Sometimes ABN/ACN numbers (potentially identifies type of organisation) For some types of NCAT case: role (e.g. landlord, trader, home owner,

consumer)

For our research, therefore, we coded the parties in 1000 cases for each Court and each NCAT division into different types

WHO IS USING THE NSW COURTS & TRIBUNALS?

49

8

13

2

16

37

4

27

2

22

9

1

0 20 40 60 80 100

NCAT(CCD)

Local Court

Percentage of cases

Individual vs Individual

Individual vs Government

Individual vs Business

Government vs individual

Business vs Individual

Business vs Business

Other vs individual

WHY USE DATA IN SERVICE PLANNING AND DESIGN?

With accurate data collection and consistent counting rules it enables reliable comparisons between services, geographic locations, and across time

Provides a benchmark against which to monitor performance and impact of new initiatives

Describes the population of a service catchment area to inform service design

Is essential for understanding how resources are being allocated (e.g. cost per client)

Provides a reality-check against the power of anecdote, beliefs and perceptions

BUT Data has biases too Limited to what data is collected How data is presented affects its

interpretation It is a starting point only: it doesn’t explain

the ‘why’

BIBLIOGRAPHY Forell, S & Coumarelos, C 2016, Data insights in civil justice: NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal - Consumer and Commercial

Division (NCAT Part 2), Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, Sydney, http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/ljf/site/templates/reports/$file/NCAT_CCD_2016.pdf

Forell, S & Mirrlees-Black, C 2016, Data insights in civil justice: NSW Local Court, Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, Sydney,

http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/ljf/site/templates/reports/$file/Local_Court_Report_2016.pdf

Forell, S & Mirrlees-Black, C 2016, Data insights in civil justice: NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal - Overview (NCAT Part 1), Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, Sydney http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/ljf/site/templates/reports/$file/NCAT_Overview_2016.pdf

Mirrlees-Black, C & Ramsay, S 2014, The development of the Legal Assistance Service Data Digest and Data Digest Online, Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales. http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/ljf/site/templates/reports/$file/LASDDreport.pdf

Mirrlees-Black, C. and Randell, S. 2017. Need for legal assistance services: developing a measure for Australia. justice issues paper 26, Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, Sydney. http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/ljf/site/articleIDs/11E3B2729A759EC0852580D5007953ED/$file/JI_22_Personal_injury.pdf

Mirrlees-Black, C & Williams, SA 2015, Collaborative Planning Resource - Jurisdictional Data, Law and Justice Foundation of NSW. http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/ljf/app/B6DC9E05711F044CCA257EF5000E995F.html