March 18, 2019
Roger Smith has updated his "Digital Delivery of Legal Services to People on Low Incomes" report.
This and previous annual reports and updates can be seen here.
March 7, 2019
TLEF, together with UCL and the University of Oxford, brought together experts to draft recommendations for measuring the impact of online courts on access to justice
The court system in England and Wales is undergoing a period of rapid and unprecedented change. In 2016, Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunal Service ("HMCTS") established a programme of reform that intends to introduce new technology, modernise the justice system and reduce costs. Cost reductions are expected to be realised through a combination of reducing staff, reducing the number of cases held in physical court rooms and reducing the court estate, as well as generating efficiency savings through reforming administrative processes. The HMCTS Reform Programme aims to reduce demand on courts by moving activity out of court rooms, expanding the use of video technology, introducing online end-to-end processes, promoting the use of online negotiation, mediation and settlement and developing new asynchronous processes (such as Continuous Online Resolution) for use in areas of administrative justice.
In delivering these changes, HMCTS have publicly committed both to monitoring and evaluating the impact of the reform programme on: "peoples access to, and the fairness of, the justice system, particularly in relation to those who are vulnerable" and to: "use insights from external research and academia to validate and challenge their approach". To assist in this task, The Legal Education Foundation, together with Professor Dame Hazel Genn (UCL Laws) and Professor Abigail Adams and Professor Jeremias Prassl (University of Oxford) brought together experts from around the world to recommend a framework for designing an evaluation that would be recognised as robust.
The workshops, which were held in October and November 2018, brought together thirty-eight experts in online dispute resolution, public law, civil procedure, access to justice research, court administration and evaluation. Attendees included:
Prof. | Abigail | Adams | New College, University of Oxford |
Ms. | Julie | Bishop | Law Centres Network |
Lord Justice | Peter | Coulson | Deputy Head of Civil Justice, England and Wales |
Dr. | Naomi | Creutzfeld | University of Westminster |
Ms. | Renee | Danser | Access to Justice Lab, Harvard Law School |
Prof. | Noam | Ebner | Creighton University Graduate School |
Prof. | Cristie | Ford | University of British Columbia |
Prof. Dame | Hazel | Genn | UCL Centre for Access to Justice, UCL Faculty of Laws |
Mr. | Richard | Goodman | HMCTS |
Prof. | Andrew | Higgins | Mansfield College, University of Oxford |
Ms. | Rhiannon | Hollis | Justice Select Committee |
Mr. | Murray | Hunt | Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law |
Prof. | Peter | John | Kings College London |
Ms. | Charlotte | Kilroy | Doughty Street Chambers |
Ms. | Sara | Lomri | Public Law Project |
Prof. | Helen | Margetts | The Alan Turing Institute and The Oxford Internet Institute |
Mr. | Richard | Miller | The Law Society |
Prof. | Helen | Mountfield | Matrix Chambers and Mansfield College Oxford |
Prof. | Kate | O'Regan | The Bonavero Insitute of Human Rights, University of Oxford |
Ms. | Alison | Pickup | Public Law Project |
Mr. | Timothy | Pitt-Payne QC | 11 Kings Bench Walk |
Prof. | Jeremias | Prassl | Magdalene College, Oxford |
Mr. | Michael | Reed | Free Representation Unit |
Prof. | Judith | Resnik | Arthur Liman Professor of Law, Yale Law School |
Ms. | Rachel | Robinson | Equality and Human Rights Commission |
Mr. | Richard | Rogers | The Civil Resolution Tribunal, British Columbia |
Dr. | Meredith | Rossner | The London School of Economics |
Sir | Ernest | Ryder | Senior President of Tribunals |
Dr. | Ayelet | Sela | Bar-Illan University, Israel |
Mr. | David | Slayton | Joint Technology Committee, National Centre for State Courts |
Dr | Joe | Tomlinson | Kings College London and The Public Law Project |
Prof. | Patricia | White | University of Miami School of Law |
Prof. | John | Zeleznikow | Victoria University Business School |
The draft recommendations are available here. The formal evaluation of the reform programme will be led by the Ministry of Justice, who have committed to finalising their approach by Spring 2019. In order to assist the Ministry of Justice in scoping their evaluation approach, TLEF would welcome comments and feedback on these draft recommendations by 22nd March 2019. Please email any comments or suggestions to Natalie.Byrom@theLEF.org by this date.
March 7, 2019
TLEF March reception brings together a wide range of organisations, which are all working to ensure people’s rights and interests are protected.
Social welfare law is ‘the law of real life’, and is what determines whether ordinary people’s ‘rights are upheld, their interests protected, and their ambitions fulfilled’, TLEF chairman Guy Beringer told guests at the foundation’s Inner Temple reception.
Despite its importance to people’s lives, social welfare law – which includes housing, welfare benefits, debt, community care, immigration, employment, mental health, equality – has been a ‘Cinderella area’ of the legal profession, he added. ‘It is often untaught by our universities, undervalued by our profession, and is often a closed book to the public.’
TLEF believes this position will not improve unless social welfare law is championed as a career choice for the most able young lawyers, which is why the foundation created its ground-breaking Justice First Fellowship scheme, he said. The fellowship has funded the training contracts of nearly 70 new social welfare solicitors and barristers since it was launched five years ago. ‘The scheme is gaining momentum and, in a few years, Justice First Fellows will be numbered in their hundreds. We hope this will help the law of real life be given the status is deserves and to be a reality for many people.’
Guy Beringer was speaking at the foundation’s fifth annual reception, which brings together people from a range of different organisations which have all received TLEF grant funding, to allow them to network and exchange ideas and information. It was attended by in excess of 100 guests.
A transcript of his speech can be read here.
Organisations attending included:
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