How many Australians face a legal problem, and who gets help?

Most people will face a legal problem at some point: a faulty product, a rental issue, a work matter, a fine. The question is what happens next. This guide sets out what the research says, and where it falls short.

How common are legal problems?

The Law and Justice Foundation of NSW ran the Legal Australia-Wide Survey: 20,716 telephone interviews with people aged 15 and over, between January and November 2008. It found that 50% of respondents had one or more legal problems in the 12 months before their interview. The Foundation estimated that this was about 8.5 million people.

The survey counted problems that have "the potential for legal resolution", across 129 types, so most were not matters for a court. After consumer problems (21%) and crime (14%), housing (12%) and government (11%) were the next most common. Around 22% of people had three or more problems, and 9% of people accounted for 65% of all the problems reported.

Rates ranged from 47% to 55% across the states and territories. The report found that South Australia and Victoria had significantly lower rates, and that the Northern Territory and Western Australia had significantly higher ones.

What do people do about them?

People often do something. For 51% of problems, people sought advice from a legal or non-legal professional. For 31%, they handled it without advice, and for 18% they took no action at all. Websites or self-help guides were used for 20% of problems.

The survey asked people why they did nothing. They could give more than one reason:

• It would take too long: 35%
• They had bigger problems: 31%
• It would be too stressful: 30%
• It would cost too much: 27%
• They didn't know what to do: 21%

The report notes that sometimes doing nothing is sensible, for example when the problem is trivial. It adds that this judgement depends on knowing enough about the law to make it.

Who does legal aid reach?

A 2025 paper from the Victoria Law Foundation (Balmer and McDonald) puts the proportion of households that pass the income and asset tests for legal aid at 8%. It says this is the same figure the Productivity Commission calculated in 2014, and well below the 13% of Australians living below the poverty line. The authors say the tests leave out most of the population, "including nearly 40 per cent of Australians living in poverty". They treat the household rate as equal to a rate for individuals, and look at non-criminal matters.

The ABS counts who legal assistance services help. In 2024-25, 379,265 clients received services funded under the National Legal Assistance Partnership. That's not a count of people: a client can be a person, a group or an organisation, and someone who used more than one provider is counted once for each. Anonymous phone advice is excluded, and the ABS labels the data "experimental".

On funding, Justice on the Brink (2023) estimated that legal aid needs $484 million more a year to meet demand, and that this could deliver "over $600 million in economic and social benefits". It was prepared by Impact Economics and Policy for National Legal Aid, the legal aid commissions' own body, so read it as that sector's case.

Where free guides and tools fit

A guide or a calculator isn't a substitute for advice. What it can do is help you see where you stand, what the rules say, and what to ask for, before you decide what to do. Given that people most often say they didn't act because it would take too long, or because they didn't know what to do, those are the gaps we try to close.

If you live in South Australia and want to speak to someone about your own situation, these are free:

This guide is general information about published research. It isn't legal advice. For help with your own situation, contact one of the services above.