The law can feel inaccessible. There are many systemic and intersectional factors that may affect someone’s ability to successfully access justice, we call this their ‘legal capability.’ So if we don’t have data for these attributes, how can we truly identify and address gaps?

Legal capability is a core element to the Victoria Law Foundation’s Public Understanding of Law Survey (PULS), looking at how people see, understand, and engage with the law. When looking at how this data is applied in practice, Eastern Community Legal Centre’s intake and triage approach is a great example – considering capability, tailoring services to needs, and creating a sustainable approach with room to grow.

Join us as we sit down with Eastern CLC to discuss legal capability, and how better data can improve service. A light lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Panelists -

Donna Askew, Director of Partnerships and Community Development, Eastern CLC

Donna Askew is the Director of Partnerships and Community Engagement at Eastern Community Legal Centre. Donna has worked for over decade in the legal assistance and government sectors as a lawyer, educator and project manager. She has a wide-ranging background in legal assistance sector innovation and leadership including establishing a number of multidisciplinary and cross-sector partnership’s in the education, health justice and integrated practice settings, in the design and implementation of evaluation and impact assessment, and the development of community engagement and awareness raising initiatives through creative mediums including art and film. More recently she has overseen ECLC’s primary prevention work – supporting the Centre’s focus on addressing legal issues across the prevention continuum, embedding prevention approaches aimed at addressing key societal drivers and minimising harmful social norms that can lead to complex socio-legal issues.

Chalita Ugrinovski, Quality and Evaluation Manager, Eastern CLC

Chalita has a proven track record in delivering demonstrable improvement in the quality of service provision, working with organisations on strategic and operational change and improvement initiatives. Driven to deliver quality outcomes with real impact, Chalita commenced in February 2020 with Eastern Community Legal Centre in the Monitoring & Evaluation role having gained extensive experience in Project and Contract Governance across both the private and the public sectors.

Prof Nigel J. Balmer, Research Director, VLF

Nigel has been conducting empirical research for over twenty years and is expert in the application of social science and modern quantitative methods to explore how the public understand and interact with the law. Nigel’s research includes work on the role of law in everyday life; attitudes to justice; public experience of and response to legal issues; the interaction between legal and health problems; and design of legal services and legal aid. He is best known for his work on legal need surveys around the world, including recent guidance supporting global access to justice initiatives under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 16. Nigel is also Professor of Law and Social Statistics at University College London.

Dr Hugh M. McDonald, Principal Researcher, VLF

Hugh joined the Foundation in September 2019 as Principal Researcher. He previously worked at the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, on several landmark access to justice and legal need projects. Throughout his career, he has worked closely with legal aid commissions, community legal centres, state and federal governments, giving him a deep understanding of legal institutions and access to justice issues throughout Australia.

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