Legal aid and access to justice Fundamentals of Access Access to - PDF document

Legal aid and access to justice Fundamentals of Access • Access to justice • Awareness of rights, entitlement, • Context Legal Aid and Access to Justice: obligations and responsibilities • First principles Back to Basics? • Awareness of procedures for resolution • What do we know about citizens’ • Ability effectively to access resolution needs? systems/procedures • How to use legal needs data Hazel Genn • Ability effectively to participate in • Prioritisation Faculty of Laws, UCL resolution process in order to achieve • Delivery just outcomes Context What is the legal aid problem? Access to justice as a social good • Ability to participate in public redress or • Continuing commitment to publicly resolution systems is a measure of the • Supply? funded legal services health democracies • Demand? • Continuing or increased pressure • Critical question = not ‘what rights do we • Delivery? on resources give or what obligations do we impose’? • Outcomes? • Increasing pressure on civil area • But ‘what opportunities do we provide for • Remuneration? from criminal justice the public to make good their • Quality? entitlements’? What are the purposes of publicly First principles funded legal services? • Individual – Enforcement of rights • What are the purposes of legal aid? First principles – Dispute resolution • What is the priority in terms of – Avoidance purposes? • Social – Supporting social order • Within broad categories of purpose, ‘Access to justice’ is an expression of – Supporting economic activity process not an outcome what are the priorities? – Supporting social justice agenda What is access for? – Supporting social inclusion agenda – Supporting rule of law through control of executive – Legal health promotion

What do we know What have we learned? about legal needs? • Justiciable problems ubiquitous • Socially excluded experience more problems • A lot – LSRC body of work • High proportion suffer multiple problems • Problems often occur in clusters • Surveys from around the world indicate • Cascade effect – one triggers others common problems, common approaches to problem resolution • Can have serious impact on lives – Family break-up • Common need for information, advice and – Unemployment and loss of income representation – Ill-health or disability • Link between unresolved problems and health, We know quite a lot about legal needs crime Common findings What do citizens want? • Low income groups suffer more problems and are less likely to do anything about the problem • Problem-solving – Sense of powerlessness/helplessness • To be saved • Resolution strategy related to problem type • Dispute resolution processes that are How can results be used? – Problems for which action most likely to be taken – – Easy to use family, consumer, property – Cheap • Advice-seeking related to problem type – Quick (within reason) – Problems for which legal advice most likely to be sought – divorce, children, property, – Authoritative • Advice sought from wide range of more or less – Transparent appropriate sources – people don’t know where – Fair to go • To get on with their lives! • Significant unmet need for accessible sources of information and advice Policy Interest in “Impact” Need for joined-up thinking and action? • Refocusing justice policy thinking – Developing a “customer” orientation • Dawning recognition that justice system – Wider than legal aid issues • Cost of unresolved legal problems has to clean up the messes that other • Alignment of justice policy with appearing in other budgets departments make broader government objectives • Social and economic costs of unresolved – Poor decision-making on benefits – cost to problems – Understanding link between access to justice justice system and social inclusion agenda – Social housing policy may lead to cost on • Estimating cost in public expenditure on • Guiding legal aid policy thinking justice system physical and mental health, welfare • That unresolved justiciable problems lead benefits, social housing costs – How to make more effective use of legal aid spend to meet the needs that citizens have to pressure on other services and budgets • The downstream cost of unresolved – Designing services with needs in mind rather – Does that person need expensive anti- problems is a powerful argument for than funder convenience or provider depressants or do they need to sort out the protecting civil legal aid assumptions problem with their landlord?

Legal needs studies and recovery Barrier at top of the cliff or Smarter approach to advice from recession ambulance at the bottom? • Emphasis on avoidance and early advice • Public interest in access to justice will • Civil legal aid has both protective – Concept of cascades and trigger events helps become greater in tough times and restorative potential to focus thinking around early intervention • Civil justice system supports enforcement • It is both the barrier at the top of • Making advice more accessible of rights, access to entitlements and the cliff (information, advice, PLE) – When can people go for advice? resolution of conflicts that might flow from • And the ambulance at the bottom – Where are they likely to go for help? recession of the cliff (advice and • Renewed interest in Public Legal • Civil legal aid necessary not only to lift up representation Education socially excluded BUT equally important in How ambitious or – Recognizing “unnecessary” helplessness current climate to PREVENT slide into limited are our access – Facilitating self-help social exclusion to justice objectives? – Knowledge and skills-development New Zealand Legal Aid Review Focus of prioritisation Different ways of meeting needs? September 2009 Essential components of effective legal aid system • Delivery Principles • Type of person? – Collaboration between providers and different types of service • Type of problem? – Triage (through IT?) • Civil v criminal? – New methods of delivery • Objective of service? • Service principles – Legal health promotion – proactive – Legal awareness raising – Dispute resolution – reactive – Empowerment – Skills development • Mode of delivery?