If people do not know they have rights or legal responsibilities; do not have the confidence to assert them or do not know the pathways to gain access to legal support and advice to action these legal rights, then those legal rights become unrealisable. It is now empirically established that unresolved legal problems result in poorer health and social outcomes. This article explores secondary consultations, where a lawyer gives one-to-one information or advice in a timely and approachable way to non-legal professionals ('trusted intermediaries') likely to have contact with vulnerable and disadvantaged clients, is an effective way of reaching clients who would otherwise not gain help or advice. The thesis for this article is that legal secondary consultations builds capacity and confidence in professionals to identify legal issues so they either support a client or, where appropriate, refer clients who would otherwise not get help because of a range of inhibitors. Legal secondary consultations enable people to identify legal issues which if unidentified or unresolved can impact significantly on their lives. The author draws on findings from recent research in urban, outer urban and rural settings in Australia and on her practical experience of secondary consultations for over a decade.

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This article details a trial of a new approach to measuring access to justice that utilises human rights instruments as the reference point. It involves an examination of people's actual experience of the justice system using human rights standards as the benchmark. The research project selected the right to income security. The project trialled a range of methods gathering data about how people have been treated in the Australian social security system and how they would expect to be treated if there was a human right to social security in Australia. This data is assessed against the set of standards developed to measure the enjoyment of the right to social security. The trial suggests that without knowledge about human rights and legal rights, without the confidence to exercise those rights and without the capacity or capability to seek or find help it is unlikely that people will realise their rights and accordingly access to justice is placed in question. The research methodology has the potential to be a useful model to conduct further access to justice research.If we believe in human rights, we must work hard to define what they mean for people's daily lives. We must identify the real and concrete outcomes that represent the achievement of human rights in practice and make sure they are incorporated in government programs and policies, as well as ensuring that the broad principles and goals of human rights form part of national and local government targets, mission statement and evaluation. 1 We've just had a young guy living with us for a few days, a twenty year old bloke who is unemployed and is homeless . . . I don't think he would see that he's got a right to that so he wouldn't go in and yell and scream or argue or get somebody to advocate for him and there's probably a lot like that. They're not prepared or have the capacity to stand up to the system and make the system work or justify itself. That's very hard to do to. 2

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