LAAC’s Research and Evaluation Working Group compiled a list of commonly-utilized data sources through our legal services data resources project. The purpose is to centralize data points, resources, and information that are often used by legal aid organizations for development, advocacy, or other purposes. This is an iterative project. For additional sources to be added, please contact Directing Attorney Zach Newman at znewman@laaconline.org.
How to use this set of resources
The page lists resources via hyperlinks with information on a topical focus, a geographic area, and a description that includes a summary, a suggested use, commonly-used datapoints within that resource, and/or a tip for using the resource.
Primer: Major civil justice datapoints
To get started, here are the crucial datapoints that LAAC staff use often.
- 60% of Californians in households at or below 125% FPL experienced at least one civil legal problem in their household in the past year, but just they sought legal help for 29% of civil legal problems they experienced (2019, State Bar of California).
- Overall, Californians at or below 125% FPL received inadequate or no legal help at all for 86% of their legal problems (id.). In terms of civil legal problems, health, finance, and employment issues were the most commonly reported among those in households below and above 125% FPL (id.).
- In our state, there are 5,089 eligible clients based on income (at or below 200% of FPL) per every one full-time legal aid attorney in California (2023, on file with LAAC). Legal aid makes a big impact, nonetheless, in our state. Legal aid organizations in California estimate that they are able to fully serve about 30% of problems presented to them (2019, State Bar of California). The top areas of law (cases closed) included housing (22%), immigration (14%), and family/DV (12%) (2018, State Bar of California).
- The numbers are similarly nationally, with 74% of low-income households experiencing one or more civil legal problems in a year, but failing to get any or enough legal help for 92% of their substantial civil legal problems (2022, Legal Services Corporation). For just 25% of problems did someone seek legal help, with the most common types of civil legal problems being consumer issues, healthcare, housing, and income maintenance (id.). Low-income people go to LSC-funded organizations to get assistance for an estimated 1.9 million civil legal problems in a year, but they have the resources to fully resolve only about half (56%) of the problems brought to them (id.).
- LSC-funded nonprofits closed more than 771,000 cases and provided over 1 million with with legal information or education (2023, Legal Services Corporation). Housing cases were the largest percentage (40%), followed by family (26%) and Income Maintenance cases (9%) (id.).