The needs of people facing legal problems

As part of its programme of research, the Legal Services Board (LSB) wanted to better understand how consumers handle the legal problems they face. In particular, the types of legal services needed and, their experience in engaging with legal services and the perceived value of these services.

There have already been a number of studies looking at consumers’ experiences of legal issues, most notably from the Legal Services Research Centre in their Civil and Social Justice Survey. However, much of this research has focussed on access to social welfare law and justiciable rights. The LSB wanted to understand the actions of consumers faced with more traditional legal needs such as conveyancing.

To enable this, BVA BDRC were commissioned to undertake a survey among a representative sample of the population, who have experienced a legal need in the past 3 years. The LSB was keen to quantify the various relationships consumers have with legal services and suppliers as well as understand the journey that people embark on when confronted with a legal need.