I. 2.¿Es posible un objeto de estudio ineficiente?
II.5. La chapuza y la adaptación social
In broad terms, there were 2,488 solicitors in NSW recorded as practising family law. This represents 15 per cent of the total 16,245 solicitors in the ‘valid’ Law Society dataset (corporate lawyers excluded). The same number (2,488) and percentage (15%) of NSW solicitors indicated they practised criminal law. The majority (86% or 13,900) of solicitors in NSW reported practising civil law.
It should be noted that civil law is a very broad category. It includes issues relevant to disadvantaged persons such as housing, employment and debt. It also includes issues more pertinent to businesses than to individuals, such as commercial law, intellectual property and copyright. Therefore, the civil law practised by public legal assistance solicitors may be very different from the civil law practised by government and private lawyers. Solicitors often practise more than one area of law. Almost 13 per cent of solicitors (n=2,029) practised both family and civil law; a little under ten per cent practised both civil and criminal law (n=1,556); almost five per cent practised both family and criminal law (n=757); and four per cent (n=673) practised all three areas of law.
There were strong statistical differences in the area of law practised based on the practice types of solicitors. This is important to know for three reasons. First, the various practice types are not equally distributed across regions of NSW. Secondly, if there is the tendency for a practice type to specialise in one broad area of law over another, it may mean that the practise of family law, civil law and criminal law also is not equally distributed across NSW. Thirdly, if particular solicitors or firms do not practise certain types of law, it may mean that the communities in which these practices are located may have certain legal needs unmet, unless there are other practices or legal services within the same area that fill these gaps.
Compared with other practice types:
Government solicitors were significantly more likely to practise criminal law but significantly less likely to practise civil law and family law.
Private solicitors were significantly more likely to practise civil law but significantly less likely to practise criminal law (no significant difference with regard to family law).
Interstate lawyers were significantly more likely to practise civil law and family law (no significant differences with regard to criminal law).
CLC solicitors were significantly more likely to practise family law and criminal law but significantly less likely to practise civil law compared with other practice types.
This last point needs to be further explained. There were large numbers of corporate, interstate and private solicitors in the Law Society dataset and the vast majority — between 90 and 99 per cent — of these practices were engaged in civil law work. Relatively speaking, CLC solicitors were more likely to practise family law and criminal law than corporate, interstate and private solicitors. This does not mean that civil law services makes up a small proportion of CLC work. In fact, almost three-quarters of CLC solicitors were involved in civil law work in the Law Society data. This is consistent with the strategic direction of CLC legal services to mainly deliver civil law services.31 The proportion of CLC solicitors recorded as practising family law
was just 25 per cent and the proportion practising criminal law was 40 per cent.32 As explained, these are
higher than the corresponding proportions for corporate, interstate and private solicitors.
Mapping the area of law practised across the regions also shows whether or not an area has its fair share of solicitors practising civil, family and criminal law. Table 9 reveals a set of findings consistent with earlier findings but still throwing up some interesting anomalies.
Table 9: Summary table of Regions with significantly higher and lower than expected numbers of solicitors practising civil, family and criminal law, 30 June 2009 Place of practice — Region
(SD, based on postcode)
Civil law Family law Criminal law All
Sydney 11,951 1,754 1,814 15,519 Hunter 589 191 164 944 Illawarra 314 114 113 541 Richmond-Tweed 204 83 82 369 Mid-North Coast 211 89 61 361 Northern 150 72 56 278 North Western 74 27 46 147 Central West 129 53 45 227 South Eastern 108 50 40 198 Murrumbidgee 111 32 50 193 Murray 52 17 12 81 Far West 7 6 5 18 NSW 13,900 2,488 2,488 18,876
Note: The grand total is higher than the number of solicitors in the Law Society valid dataset (corporate lawyers excluded) because
a solicitor could record that they practised more than one area of law.
statistically higher number of solicitors practising the area of law in that Region statistically lower number of solicitors practising the area of law in that Region
neither statistically higher nor lower than expected
Source: Law Society of NSW database (30 June 2009).
The number of solicitors practising civil law in each region of NSW was neither statistically high nor low given the expected number of civil law solicitors.33 For example, Sydney, with the largest number of
solicitors, had 11,951 solicitors practising civil law whereas the statistically-derived expected number of civil law solicitors for this region was 11,953. Even the Far West, with only ten solicitors, still had seven solicitors practising civil law compared to an expected number of nine.
31 It is generally acknowledged that CLCs undertake advice and assistance work in relation to a broad range of civil law matters <http://www.
clcnsw.org.au/cb_pages/about_clcs.php#generalist_clcs>.
32 The observed proportions of CLC solicitors practising family and criminal law will be increased somewhat given that the Law Society category
‘community legal centres’ may include solicitors employed by the Family Violence Prevention Legal Service (FVPLS) and possibly a number of solicitors employed by Legal Aid NSW and/or the Aboriginal Legal Services.
33 The chi-square test determines the statistical significance of any difference between the actual and expected number of solicitors practising
an area of law in the different regions. A standardised residual value of greater than 2.0 or less than -2.0 indicates a statistically significant difference between the actual and expected number of solicitors for that area of law in that particular region.
Sydney was the only region with significantly fewer solicitors practising family law than expected. Sydney had 1,754 family law solicitors, 382 (or 18%) fewer than expected. However, it should be noted that Sydney still had the largest number of family law solicitors of any region. In all regions outside of Sydney, there were more solicitors practising family law than otherwise would be expected. In some areas, and without commenting upon any underlying legal need, the number of family law solicitors could be considered disproportionately high. For example, South Eastern NSW had greater than two times the expected number of resident family law solicitors (actual: 50, expected: 18), as did the Mid-North Coast (actual: 89, expected: 36) and Northern NSW (actual: 72, expected: 26).
Even the Far West, with the fewest solicitors, had six of its ten (60%) solicitors practising family law when the expected number was just two.
Sydney was also the only region with significantly fewer than expected resident solicitors practising criminal law. There were 1,814 solicitors practising criminal law in Sydney, 15 per cent fewer than expected. Nonetheless, Sydney still had the greatest number of criminal law solicitors, ten times that of Newcastle (164) with the second highest number of criminal law solicitors of any region in NSW. Outside of Sydney, all regions, except for the Murray,34 had significantly more solicitors practising family law than
expected. North Western NSW had almost three times the number of resident criminal law solicitors than expected (actual: 46, expected: 16), while Northern NSW, the Central West and South Eastern NSW had double their expected number of criminal law solicitors. Five of the ten resident solicitors in the Far West region of NSW practised criminal law when the expected number was just two.