The Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales, Australia has recently completed a review of the state’s administrative civil court and tribunal data to assess its utility for policy purposes. Understanding who is bringing cases to different jurisdictions, against whom and for what purposes is a prerequisite for designing efficient and effective civil justice processes. It can also provide an indication of the extent to which the courts are providing equality of access to justice.

However, compared to criminal court data there is very little information about the parties to civil cases. Civil court and tribunal data usually distinguishes between organisations and individuals (as this may relate to the fee payable) and sometimes the role of the parties (e.g. landlord, tenant) but generally an additional coding exercise is required to distinguish private individuals from businesses, government entities and other types of organisation. Analysis of party type demonstrates the very different profiles for plaintiffs and defendants indicating a potential imbalance in the parties’ resources and experience of navigating the legal system.

This presentation will discuss the challenges of analysing civil court administrative data and explore what the data suggests about the extent to which the civil court and tribunal system provides access to justice for ‘everyone’.