A new report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Open Society Foundations provides a framework for the development, implementation and evaluation of legal needs surveys to measure access to civil justice. Tools and indicators to assess aspects of civil justice systems have been slow to develop, in particular when compared to criminal justice systems.  The newly published Legal Needs Surveys and Access to Justice report offers guidance to create and assess legal needs surveys that is based in learnings and best practices gleaned from a review of more than 20 years of legal needs surveys carried out throughout the world

The three, central dimensions of access to justice that form the bases of the evaluative legal needs framework in the report include:

1. The nature and extent of unmet legal and justice needs;
2. The impact of unmet legal and justice needs on individuals, the community and the state; and
3. How specific models of legal assistance and dispute resolution are utilised to meet needs.

The Legal Needs Surveys and Access to Justice report is available online here: https://www.oecd.org/governance/legal-needs-surveys-and-access-to-justice-g2g9a36c-en.htm.