{"links":{"self":"http://dataportal.arc.gov.au/NCGP/API/grants/DE260101497"},"data":{"type":"grant-details","id":"DE260101497","attributes":{"code":"DE260101497","administering-organisation":"Western Sydney University","announcement-administering-organisation":"Macquarie University","scheme-name":"Discovery Early Career Researcher Award","grant-status":"Active","funding-commencement-year":2026,"years-funded":3,"project-start-date":"2026-04-13","anticipated-end-date":"2029-04-12","grant-summary":"Advancing access to justice: identifying the causes of legal problems. The legal needs of disadvantaged Australians are hard to assess, often go unmet and compound social exclusion. This project develops a causal explanation for the legal problems of clients of Australia’s tax-funded legal assistance sector. Applying an innovative critical realist methodology to interview and survey data and extensive sector engagement for research translation, it will examine how legal needs are generated by inequalities and complex interactions with non-legal social, health and economic problems. Findings will help organisations target legal services in a resource-constrained environment and provide evidence to inform funding and law reform, improving access to justice and reducing costs in the justice and welfare systems.","funding-current":534130.00,"funding-at-announcement":529891,"investigators-current":[{"title":"Dr","firstName":"Catherine","familyName":"Hastings","roleName":"Discovery Early Career Researcher Award","roleCode":"DECRA","isFellowship":true,"orcidIdentifier":"0000-0002-5486-8118 "}],"investigators-at-announcement":[{"title":"Dr","firstName":"Catherine","familyName":"Hastings","roleName":"Discovery Early Career Researcher Award","roleCode":"DECRA","isFellowship":true,"orcidIdentifier":"0000-0002-5486-8118 "}],"organisations-current":[{"organisationName":"Western Sydney University","roleName":"Administering Organisation","state":"NSW"}],"organisations-at-announcement":[{"organisationName":"Macquarie University","roleName":"Administering Organisation","state":"NSW"}],"field-of-research":[{"isPrimary":true,"code":"4410","name":"Sociology","type":"FOR20"},{"isPrimary":false,"code":"441012","name":"Sociology of Inequalities","type":"FOR20"}],"socio-economic-objective":[{"code":"230113","name":"Structure, Delivery and Resourcing","type":"SEO20"},{"code":"230405","name":"Law Reform","type":"SEO20"},{"code":"280123","name":"Expanding Knowledge In Human Society","type":"SEO20"}],"international-collaboration":["Canada","England","Ireland","New Zealand","Scotland","United States of America","Wales"],"lief-register":[],"achievement-summary":null,"national-interest-test-statement":"Australia faces a growing shortage of affordable legal assistance services. Unmet legal problems can escalate and further compound disadvantage, inequality and poverty for those already experiencing hardship. Lack of legal empowerment and unequal access to justice generates economic and social costs for individuals and societies by impacting many areas of life, including physical and mental health, employment, productivity and family stability. Appropriate and affordable legal services protect and enhance social equality, fairness, respect for human rights, health and wellbeing, and reduce costs to justice and welfare systems. This project will investigate how legal needs arise from disadvantage and how they interact with non-legal problems. It will move beyond describing which individuals and groups are more likely to experience legal problems to explaining why they do. The project will incorporate interviews and surveys with clients of the legal assistance sector. Discovering the causes of legal need across its social, political, legal and health dimensions will inform service delivery models and legal and policy reform for better social and economic outcomes. Through workshops, online training and podcasts, the project will enhance the capacity the Australia’s legal assistance sector to provide preventative and targeted legal support that responds to clients’ complex needs in an environment of high service demand."}}}