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Appendix C: Results

Table C1: Incidence of specific legal events, all six LGAs, 2003

Area of law	Survey question no.	Legal event group (no. of items) Legal event	Events No.	Participants %
Civil (76)		Accident/injury (4)	554	19.2
	19	Car accident — property damage	194	8
	39A	Car accident — personal injury	26	1.1
	39B	Injury at work	158	6.5
	39C	Other personal injury	176	7.2
		Business (2)	125	5
	7	Problem as landlord	48	2
	9	Problem re own business	77	3.2
		Consumer (5)	690	22
	20F	Problem re superannuation	56	2.3
	21	Problem re goods/services	257	10.6
	22	Dispute with financial institution	239	9.8
	23	Problem re insurance	117	4.8
	56	Complaint about lawyer	21	0.9
		Credit/debt (5)	384	12
	20A	Problem paying bill/debt	145	6
	20B	Dispute re credit rating	55	2.3
	20C	Problem re money owed to you	150	6.2
	20D	Problem as guarantor	11	0.5
	20E	Bankruptcy	23	0.9
		Education (6)	223	7.4
	35A	Unfair exclusion from education	10	0.4
	35B	HECS issue	28	1.2
	35C	School bullying/harassment	17	0.7
	37A	Unfair exclusion from education — parent	37	1.5
	37B	HECS issue — parent	15	0.6
	37C	School bullying/harassment — parent	116	4.8
		Employment (5)	426	12.1
	2A	Dispute re employment conditions	178	7.3
	2B	Unfair termination of employment	49	2
	2C	Workplace harassment/mistreatment	125	5.1
	2D	Workplace discrimination	72	3
	2E	Other problem re employment	2	0.1
		Government (15)	631	19.5
	5	Problem re gov. pension/benefit	112	4.6
	31C	Problem re gov. services — carer of disabled/elderly	52	2.1
	43A	Problem re gov. disability/community services	25	1
	44A	Dispute re taxation/debt	92	3.8
	43E	Other problem re gov. services — disabled person	2	0.1
	44B	Problem re freedom of information request	37	1.5
	44C	Immigration problem	30	1.2
	44D	Local council problem	158	6.5
	51	Non-traffic fines you challenged	122	5
	53A	Problem re medical treatment — immigration detention	0	0
	53B	Problem re legal advice — immigration detention	0	0
	53C	Safety threats — immigration detention	0	0
	53D	Harassment/abuse by staff — immigration detention	0	0
	53E	Problem re release — immigration detention	0	0
	57B	Problem re legal system	1	0
Civil (76)		Health (11)	90	3.2
	31B	Involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation — carer	8	0.3
	31F	Problem re quality of medical treatment — carer	16	0.7
	31G	Problem re disability facilities — carer	6	0.2
	42A	Involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation	4	0.2
	42B	Other mental health care issue	6	0.2
	43B	Problem re non-government disability services	40	1.6
	53A	Problem re medical treatment — psychiatric ward	5	0.2
	53B	Problem re legal advice — psychiatric ward	1	0
	53C	Safety threats — psychiatric ward	1	0
	53D	Harassment/abuse by staff — psychiatric ward	1	0
	53E	Problem re release — psychiatric ward	2	0.1
		Housing (11)	673	22.6
	10A	Bought/sold home	219	9
	10B	Dispute with neighbour	152	6.3
	10C	Homelessness	94	3.9
	12	Tenancy problem	121	5
	14	Home ownership problem	6	0.2
	16A	Strata title problem	55	2.3
	16B	Problem re caravan/home estate	2	0.1
	16C	Problem re boarding house/hostel	0	0
	16D	Problem re retirement home/village	1	0
	31A	Nursing home problem — carer of disabled/elderly	23	0.9
	43C	Nursing home problem — disabled person	0	0
		Human rights a (8)	196	5.8
	24A	Discrimination — marital status	28	1.2
	24B	Discrimination — age	38	1.6
	24C	Discrimination — gender	36	1.5
	24D	Discrimination — religion	22	0.9
	24E	Discrimination — sexuality	18	0.7
	24F	Discrimination — ethnicity	29	1.2
	24G	Discrimination — disability	22	0.9
	31H	Discrimination — carer of disabled/eldery	3	0.1
		Wills/estates (4)	417	14.6
	32A	Make/alter will	269	11.1
	32B	Executor of estate	53	2.2
	32C	Dispute over will/estate	34	1.4
	32D	Power of attorney	61	2.5
Criminal (16)		Domestic violence (3)	109	3.9
	47A	Victim of domestic violence by family member	64	2.6
	47B	Victim of domestic violence by household member	24	1
	48	Domestic violence allegation against you	21	0.9
		General crime (11)	872	26.6
	46A	Unfair treatment by police	45	1.9
	46B	Criminal charge	27	1.1
	46C	Problem re bail/remand	4	0.2
	46D	Police failing to investigate crime	106	4.4
	47C	Assault victim	219	9
	49	Property stolen/vandalised	460	18.9
	53A	Problem re medical treatment — prison/juvenile detention	2	0.1
	53B	Problem re legal advice — prison/juvenile detention	2	0.1
	53C	Safety threats — prison/juvenile detention	2	0.1
	53D	Harassment/abuse by staff — prison/juvenile detention	2	0.1
	53E	Problem re release — prison/juvenile detention	3	0.1
		Traffic offences (2)	83	3.2
	50A	Loss of driver’s licence	30	1.2
	50B	Other traffic fine/offence you challenged	53	2.2
Family (9)		Family (9)	292	8.5
	25A	Problem re residence/contact for child	70	2.9
	25B	Problem re residence/contact for grandchild	19	0.8
	27A	Problem re child support payments	77	3.2
	27B	Child protection issue	4	0.2
	27C	Fostering/adoption/guardianship issue	6	0.2
	29A	Divorce/separation	81	3.3
	29B	Dispute re matrimonial property	27	1.1
	31D	Guardianship problem — carer of disabled/elderly	7	0.3
	57A	Other family law problem	1	0
Unclassified (3)		Unclassified (3)	11	0.5
	31E	Other problem — carer of disabled/elderly	4	0.2
	43D	Other problem re disability	2	0.1
	57	Other problem	5	0.2

a Human rights events are not related to employment.

Figure C1: Fusion coefficient at each stage of the hierarchical cluster analysis on legal event groups

Notes: N=2431 participants and 5765 events. Eleven events were excluded because they were unclassified. Clustering method: centroid method.

Table C2: Rotated Factor Matrix on legal event groups

Area of law	Legal event group	Factor 1	Factor 2	Factor 3
Civil	Accident/injury	0.408	0.018	0.036
	Business	-0.019	0.476	-0.013
	Consumer	0.406	0.349	0.112
	Credit/debt	0.234	0.507	0.074
	Education	0.257	0.137	0.156
	Employment	0.426	0.026	0.016
	Government	0.363	0.254	0.092
	Health	0.176	0.106	0.066
	Housing	0.273	0.218	0.149
	Human rights	0.328	0.079	0.142
	Wills/estates	0.094	0.179	0.072
Criminal	Domestic violence	0.182	0.016	0.337
	General crime	0.382	0.19	0.107
	Traffic offences	0.113	0.049	0.049
Family	Family	0.051	0.131	0.773

Notes: N=2431 participants and 5765 events. Eleven events were excluded because they were unclassified. Significant factor loadings are presented in bold.
Extraction method: principal component. Rotation method: varimax with Kaiser normalisation.

Table C3: Standard binary logistic regression for reporting legal eventsof any type

	B	SE	Wald	p	Odds ratio	95% CI for odds ratio
						Lower	Upper
Gender	0.08	0.106	0.572	0.45	1.083	0.88	1.333
Age (years)			85.785	0
15–24	1.457	0.188	59.83	0	4.293	2.968	6.209
25–34	1.506	0.192	61.237	0	4.506	3.091	6.57
35–44	1.282	0.185	48.091	0	3.603	2.508	5.176
45–54	1.119	0.184	37.164	0	3.062	2.137	4.387
55–64	0.738	0.194	14.437	0	2.091	1.429	3.06
Indigenous status	0.099	0.273	0.13	0.718	1.104	0.646	1.885
Country of birth	0.419	0.138	9.257	0.002	1.52	1.161	1.991
Disability status	0.556	0.137	16.415	0	1.743	1.332	2.28
Personal income ($/week)			10.882	0.012
0–199	-0.738	0.229	10.35	0.001	0.478	0.305	0.75
200–499	-0.537	0.217	6.132	0.013	0.584	0.382	0.894
500–999	-0.424	0.212	4.015	0.045	0.654	0.432	0.991
Education level			24.302	0
Didn’t finish/at school	-0.36	0.197	3.349	0.067	0.698	0.475	1.026
Year 10/equivalent	-0.398	0.156	6.472	0.011	0.672	0.495	0.913
Year 12/equivalent	-0.315	0.165	3.663	0.056	0.73	0.529	1.008
Certificate/diploma	0.353	0.183	3.721	0.054	1.424	0.994	2.038
Constant	-0.067	0.271	0.06	0.806	0.936

Notes: N=1988 participants. P values for significant predictors are presented in bold.
Reference categories: gender (male); age (65+ years); Indigenous status (non-Indigenous); country of birth (non-English speaking); disability status (no disability); personal income ($1000+); education level (university degree).

Table C4: Standard binary logistic regression for reporting accident/injury events

	B	SE	Wald	p	Odds ratio	95% CI for odds ratio
						Lower	Upper
Gender	-0.345	0.123	7.869	0.005	0.708	0.557	0.901
Age (years)			60.525	0
15–24	1.771	0.281	39.801	0	5.877	3.39	10.189
25–34	1.21	0.285	17.967	0	3.353	1.916	5.866
35–44	1.084	0.286	14.354	0	2.955	1.687	5.176
45–54	0.82	0.29	7.996	0.005	2.271	1.286	4.011
55–64	0.378	0.326	1.339	0.247	1.459	0.769	2.766
Indigenous status	-0.193	0.324	0.355	0.551	0.824	0.437	1.556
Country of birth	0.416	0.176	5.553	0.018	1.515	1.072	2.142
Disability status	0.357	0.156	5.259	0.022	1.43	1.053	1.94
Personal income ($/week)			15.158	0.002
0–199	-0.674	0.236	8.181	0.004	0.509	0.321	0.809
200–499	-0.678	0.215	9.938	0.002	0.507	0.333	0.774
500–999	-0.22	0.198	1.235	0.266	0.803	0.545	1.183
Education level			5.072	0.28
Didn’t finish/at school	-0.036	0.244	0.022	0.883	0.965	0.598	1.556
Year 10/equivalent	-0.063	0.182	0.12	0.729	0.939	0.657	1.342
Year 12/equivalent	0.18	0.182	0.976	0.323	1.197	0.838	1.71
Certificate/diploma	0.281	0.184	2.325	0.127	1.325	0.923	1.902
Constant	-2.387	0.35	46.514	0	0.092

Notes: N=1988 participants. P values for significant predictors are presented in bold.
Reference categories: gender (male); age (65+ years); Indigenous status (non-Indigenous); country of birth (non-English speaking); disability status (no disability); personal income ($1000+); education level (university degree).

Table C5: Standard binary logistic regression for reporting consumer events

	B	SE	Wald	p	Odds ratio	95% CI for odds ratio
						Lower	Upper
Gender	0.151	0.116	1.702	0.192	1.163	0.927	1.459
Age (years)			58.048	0
15–24	1.956	0.296	43.567	0	7.07	3.955	12.637
25–34	1.679	0.294	32.716	0	5.362	3.016	9.534
35–44	1.609	0.293	30.259	0	5	2.818	8.872
45–54	1.291	0.295	19.096	0	3.637	2.038	6.491
55–64	0.864	0.321	7.251	0.007	2.372	1.265	4.448
Indigenous status	0.083	0.289	0.083	0.773	1.087	0.617	1.914
Country of birth	0.199	0.162	1.506	0.22	1.22	0.888	1.677
Disability status	0.719	0.143	25.47	0	2.053	1.553	2.715
Personal income ($/week)			14.782	0.002
0–199	-0.642	0.233	7.597	0.006	0.526	0.333	0.831
200–499	-0.334	0.209	2.564	0.109	0.716	0.476	1.078
500–999	-0.005	0.196	0.001	0.98	0.995	0.678	1.46
Education level			6.392	0.172
Didn’t finish/at school	-0.1