When legal rights are not a reality: do individuals know their rights and how can we tell?

Figures & data

Table 1 Prevalence of civil justice problems of different types.

Problem type	N	%
Neighbours	359	9.3
Consumer	338	8.9
Employment	211	5.5
Money	202	5.3
Debt	185	4.9
Benefits	166	4.4
Personal Injury	155	4.1
Rented housing	144	3.8
Relationship breakdown	80	2.1
Education	71	1.9
Owned housing	59	1.6
Clinical negligence	53	1.4
Divorce	41	1.1
Domestic violence	39	1.0
Care proceedings	9	0.2

Table 2 Problem types and knowledge of rights.

	Knew rights at outset		Acquired knowledge		Did not acquire knowledge
Problem type	N	Row %	N	Row %	N	Row %
Consumer	174	58.4	38	12.8	86	28.9
Employment	69	35.0	47	23.9	81	41.1
Neighbours	103	40.9	33	13.1	116	46.0
Owned housing	26	49.1	15	28.3	12	22.6
Rented housing	41	34.5	24	20.2	54	45.4
Debt	61	36.1	39	23.1	69	40.8
Money	72	39.3	38	20.8	73	39.9
Benefits	43	33.0	28	21.7	58	45.0
Education	22	33.8	11	16.9	32	49.2
Personal injury	29	42.6	17	25.0	22	32.4
Clinical negligence	19	39.6	5	10.4	24	50.0
Divorce/relationship breakdown	44	37.0	35	29.4	40	33.6
Domestic violence	10	27.0	13	35.1	14	37.8
Care proceedings	2	25.0	2	25.0	4	50.0

Table 3 Whether respondents lost, gained or retained the same level of knowledge of their rights by problem-type.*

	Lost		Same		Gained
	N	Row %	N	Row %	N	Row %
Consumer	6	17.6	20	58.8	8	23.5
Employment	10	21.7	15	32.6	21	45.7
Neighbours	20	25.6	18	23.1	40	51.3
Owned housing	1	7.1	10	71.4	3	21.4
Rented housing	9	34.6	10	38.5	7	26.9
Debt	9	21.4	17	40.5	16	38.1
Money	11	30.6	13	36.1	12	33.3
Benefits	5	23.8	8	38.1	8	38.1
Education	3	27.3	3	27.3	5	45.5
Personal injury	4	33.3	2	16.7	6	50.0
Clinical negligence	2	18.2	4	36.4	5	45.5
Divorce/relationship breakdown	10	31.3	10	31.3	12	37.5
Domestic violence	2	20	4	40	4	40.0
*With only one respondent the category ‘care’ was removed from the table, this respondent reported that their knowledge had stayed the same.

Table 4 Categorisation of verbatim responses against problem-type.

	(1)		(2)		(3)		(4)		(5)		(6)		(7)
	Situation/ Outcome		Rights/ Legal Position		Potential Error		Value Judgement		Vague Rights		No Legal Position/Rights		Don't Know
	N	Row %	N	Row %	N	Row %	N	Row %	N	Row %	N	Row %	N	Row %
Consumer	46	21.7	111	52.4	12	5.7	5	2.4	14	6.6	7	3.3	17	8.0
Employment	32	27.6	36	31.0	7	6.0	9	7.8	11	9.5	11	9.5	10	8.6
Neighbours	33	24.3	41	30.1	2	1.5	17	12.5	20	14.7	8	5.9	15	11.0
Owned housing	12	29.3	13	31.7	0	0.0	3	7.3	6	14.6	1	2.4	6	14.6
Rented housing	17	26.2	32	49.2	3	4.6	1	1.5	4	6.2	0	0.0	8	12.3
Debt	29	29.0	46	46.0	0	0.0	2	2.0	2	2.0	3	3.0	18	18.0
Money	39	35.5	43	39.1	0	0.0	6	5.5	8	7.3	5	4.5	9	8.2
Benefits	14	19.7	34	47.9	0	0.0	6	8.5	0	0.0	4	5.6	13	18.3
Education	4	12.1	15	45.5	2	6.1	2	6.1	1	3.0	3	9.1	6	18.2
Personal injury	12	26	17	37.0	0	0.0	9	19.6	4	8.7	1	2.2	3	6.5
Clinical negligence	7	29.2	6	25.0	0	0.0	1	4.2	6	25.0	1	4.2	3	12.5
Divorce/relationship breakdown	23	29.5	36	46.2	1	1.3	3	3.8	3	3.8	3	3.8	9	11.5
Domestic violence	4	20.0	13	65.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	3	15.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
Care	2	50.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	2	50.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
Total	274	25.9	443	42.0	27	2.6	64	6.1	84	8.0	47	4.5	117	11.1

Table 5 Categorisation of verbatim responses in relation to level of education attainment of respondent.

	(1)		(2)		(3)		(4)		(5)		(6)		(7)
	Situation/ Outcome		Rights/ Legal Position		Potential Error		Value Judgement		Vague Rights		No Legal Position/Rights		Don't Know
	N	Row %	N	Row %	N	Row %	N	Row %	N	Row %	N	Row %	N	Row %
None	41	24.1	66	38.8	3	1.8	10	5.9	19	11.2	6	3.5	25	14.7
Higher degrees	21	24.7	34	40.0	3	3.5	5	5.9	4	4.7	6	7.1	12	14.1
First degrees or equiv.	63	29.4	97	45.3	5	2.3	7	3.3	13	6.1	6	2.8	23	10.7
Diplomas in HE or equiv.	35	27.3	48	37.5	5	3.9	11	8.6	10	7.8	6	4.7	13	10.2
A/AS levels or equiv.	40	27.4	55	37.7	6	4.1	9	6.2	15	10.3	9	6.2	12	8.2
GCSE A-C or equiv.	15	23.4	35	54.7	1	1.6	3	4.7	2	3.1	2	3.1	6	9.4
GCSE D-G or equiv.	13	24.1	21	38.9	1	1.9	5	9.3	6	11.1	2	3.7	6	11.1
Trade apprentice	44	23.7	85	45.7	3	1.6	13	7.0	13	7.0	10	5.4	18	9.7
Other	2	22.2	2	22.2	0	0.0	1	11.1	2	22.2	0	0.0	2	22.2