Improving Access to Justice: Community-based Solutions

Inaccessibility to justice is a major issue internationally, and in some countries access to justice has decreased in recent years. For example, the growth of inequality and decline of state support have left access to justice in the UK and the USA in a worst state in decades. There is therefore an urgent need to find solutions to protect peoples’ rights. This article outlines key issues of access to justice and identifies a number of solutions from grassroots efforts to organizational changes. The article highlights the importance of community-based solutions, such as mass pro bono contributions from individuals, law service providers and other organizations. It also proposes, as a key solution, making legal professions more representative of societies, and calls for law schools and legal regulators to take the required steps. Another important contributor to improved access to justice is promotion of pro bono work by all lawyers and law organizations at their own initiative. The article also discusses enhancing existing law degrees with additional topics on access to justice, to help students gain an objective picture of the realities of the legal system, and on individual differences, to benefit from latest interdisciplinary science. Community-based solutions provide stability even in times of difficult economic circumstances and political turbulence, and therefore are relevant to all societies.

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A practical example of an open disclosure process for people with intellectual disabilities in the Republic of Ireland

Journal of Intellectual Disabilities ◽

10.1177/17446295211018910 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 174462952110189

Author(s):

Feabhra Mullally ◽

Deirdre Corby

Keyword(s):

Intellectual Disabilities ◽

Service Providers ◽

Republic Of Ireland ◽

Open Disclosure ◽

The Usa ◽

People With Intellectual Disabilities ◽

Adults With Intellectual Disabilities ◽

The Republic ◽

Communication Needs ◽

The Uk

Literature pertaining to open disclosure predominantly refers to acute care settings; this is the case in, for example, the UK, Republic of Ireland, Australia, Korea and the USA. There is, however, a dearth of literature regarding open disclosure related to people with intellectual disabilities. A practice example of open disclosure is presented here, following a serious adverse event in an organisation supporting adults with intellectual disabilities. The aim of the process was to openly disclose in a meaningful way to adults with significant intellectual disabilities and communication difficulties. An apology pathway was developed by a multidisciplinary team based on individual communication needs. A suite of resources was developed including easy read-picture agendas and sign language to support increased understanding of the apology. Service users received the apology first, followed by meetings with their families. This practice example has positive implications for service providers for people with intellectual disabilities.

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Models of Clinic and Their Value to Students, Universities and the Community in the post-2012 Fees Era

International Journal of Clinical Legal Education ◽

10.19164/ijcle.v19i0.29 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 19 ◽

pp. 257

Author(s):

Lydia Bleasdale-Hill ◽

Paul Wragg

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Clinical Education ◽

General Public ◽

Access To Justice ◽

Host Institution ◽

Law Schools ◽

Legal Advice ◽

Pro Bono ◽

Student Volunteers ◽

Clinic Activity

The number of clinics in existence within higher education institutions has continued to proliferate in recent years. The 2011 LawWorks1 report examining the pro bono work undertaken within Universities in the United Kingdom found that at least 61 per cent of all Law schools now offer pro bono activities to their students,2 with 40 respondents offering clinic. This compares with 53 per cent of respondents offering pro bono activity and 11 respondents offering clinical activities in 2006. This evidence suggests that an increasing number of Law Schools recognise the benefits of clinic to students. However, the arrival of a new era in higher education funding arguably requires some reflection on (and perhaps greater articulation of) those benefits and the priorities of clinic activity overall, in order to ensure that the expectations of the key clinic stakeholders (the hosting institution, student volunteers and participating members of the public) are met. Concerns that the significant reduction in state funding for higher education will impact adversely on institutional resources is well-documented and at an institutional level there is likely to be increased scrutiny of the efficiency of devoting scarce resources to clinic activity in a climate of lower (or potentially lower) income streams and leaner budgets. Similarly, some students are likelyto exhibit a heightened sense of wanting value for money in their expectations of clinical education and may well demand greater input in the design of clinic activity. Against this, there has been a general and significant reduction in funding for the provision of free legal advice and an associated increased demand amongst the general public for quality free legal advice and access to justice. Therefore, for new and established clinicians alike, the post-2012 era provides the opportunity for, if not necessitates, reflection on the expectations and ambitions of the three key clinic stakeholders (the host institution, the student volunteers and the general public) and, particularly, the question of whether they are sufficiently aligned with each other and the priorities of the clinic activity in place. Arguably, the possibility of conflicting priorities for clinic originating from these key stakeholders and methods of resolving them has featured little in the academic commentary. This paper seeks to contribute to such a debate by offering some insights into resolving these tensions. Taking the interests of each stakeholder in turn, this paper discusses methods of maximising the efficiency of administering the clinic and managing student expectations.

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Taking Clinical Legal Education Online: Songs of Innocence and Experience

International Journal of Public Legal Education ◽

10.19164/ijple.v4i2.1062 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 6

Author(s):

Hugh McFaul ◽

Liz Hardie ◽

Francine Ryan ◽

Keren Lloyd Bright ◽

Neil Graffin

Keyword(s):

Legal Education ◽

Law Schools ◽

Online Technologies ◽

Study Approach ◽

Different Types ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

Pro Bono ◽

The Uk ◽

Songs Of Innocence

In common with the wider higher education sector, clinical legal education practitioners are facing the challenge of how to adapt their teaching practices to accommodate the restrictions imposed by governmental responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Facilitating distance learning via online technologies has unsurprisingly become an area of increasing interest in the hope that it may offer a potential solution to the problem of how to continue teaching undergraduates in a socially distanced environment. This paper seeks to provide clinical legal education practitioners with evidence-based insights into the challenges and opportunities afforded by using digital technologies to deliver clinical legal education. It adopts a case study approach by reflecting on the Open Justice Centre’s four-year experience of experimenting with online technologies to provide meaningful and socially useful legal pro bono projects for students studying a credit bearing undergraduate law module. It will analyse how a number of different types of pro bono activity were translated into an online environment, identify common obstacles and posit possible solutions. In doing so, this paper aims to provide a timely contribution to the literature on clinical legal education and offer a means to support colleagues in law schools in the UK and internationally, who are grappling with the challenges presented by taking clinical legal education online.

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Service innovations

Psychiatric Bulletin ◽

10.1192/s0955603600002099 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 27 (5) ◽

pp. 183-186

Author(s):

Hermine L. Graham ◽

Alex Copello ◽

Max Birchwood ◽

Jim Orford ◽

Dermot McGovern ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Substance Misuse ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Integrated Treatment ◽

Adverse Outcomes ◽

Community Based ◽

Treatment Approaches ◽

Client Group ◽

The Usa ◽

The Uk

One of the challenges for services in the UK has been how best to meet the needs of those people who experience severe mental health problems and use drugs and alcohol problematically. It is now well-documented in the international literature that the coexistence of severe mental health and substance misuse problems are common (e.g. Regier et al, 1990; Krausz et al, 1996; Menezes et al, 1996; Fowler et al, 1998; Mueser et al, 2000; Graham et al, 2001) and often correlated with a number of adverse outcomes (Smith & Hucker, 1994; Johnson, 1997; Mueser et al, 2000). Integrated treatment approaches developed in the USA for this client group (e.g. Drake & Wallach, 2000; Drake et al, 2001), and although they offer much food for thought and some direction, they could not be wholly imported and implemented in the UK because of significant differences in the contextual factors that guide service provision in the two countries. The challenge in the UK has been to develop effective services that fit with the unique community-based treatment approaches for substance misuse problems and mental health that have developed and historically offered separately and in parallel.

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Commentary on “Employment for all: United States Disability Policy”

Tizard Learning Disability Review ◽

10.1108/tldr-04-2016-0013 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 162-164

Author(s):

Stephen Beyer

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Cultural Policy ◽

Disability Policy ◽

Welfare Benefit ◽

Community Based ◽

Content Type ◽

The Usa ◽

Job Coaching ◽

Employment Rates ◽

The Uk

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect on Rebecca Monteleone’s paper “Employment for all: United States Disability Policy” and provides a commentary on its implications for the UK. Design/methodology/approach – The approach is to provide a comparison of the situation described in the article for the USA with that of the UK. Findings – There has been significant progress in legislation and policy relevant to the employment of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs) in the USA. They have achieved higher employment rates than the UK, but are still at lower levels of employment than other citizens. The importance of collecting data on the employment rates of people with ID to monitor policy effectiveness is clear. The US has a more comprehensive approach to transition to employment that the UK could learn from. The importance of job coaching to community-based employment is highlighted. The balance of investment between community and sheltered jobs appears to be the key to further growth of community-based employment rates. The detailed impact of welfare benefit regulation is important to motivation to work and changes need to be monitored from an ID perspective. Originality/value – This paper contributes to cross-cultural policy comparisons and underlines the value of comparing and contrasting legislation, policy and outcomes across countries.

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Taking Clinical Legal Education Online: Songs of Innocence and Experience

International Journal of Clinical Legal Education ◽

10.19164/ijcle.v27i4.1052 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 6-38

Author(s):

Hugh McFaul ◽

Liz Hardie ◽

Francine Ryan ◽

Keren Lloyd Bright ◽

Neil Graffin

Keyword(s):

Legal Education ◽

Law Schools ◽

Online Technologies ◽

Study Approach ◽

Different Types ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

Pro Bono ◽

The Uk ◽

Songs Of Innocence

In common with the wider higher education sector, clinical legal education practitioners are facing the challenge of how to adapt their teaching practices to accommodate the restrictions imposed by governmental responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Facilitating distance learning via online technologies has unsurprisingly become an area of increasing interest in the hope that it may offer a potential solution to the problem of how to continue teaching undergraduates in a socially distanced environment.This paper seeks to provide clinical legal education practitioners with evidence-based insights into the challenges and opportunities afforded by using digital technologies to deliver clinical legal education. It adopts a case study approach by reflecting on the Open Justice Centre’s four-year experience of experimenting with online technologies to provide meaningful and socially useful legal pro bono projects for students studying a credit bearing undergraduate law module. It will analyse how a number of different types of pro bono activity were translated into an online environment, identify common obstacles and posit possible solutions. In doing so, this paper aims to provide a timely contribution to the literature on clinical legal education and offer a means to support colleagues in law schools in the UK and internationally, who are grappling with the challenges presented by taking clinical legal education online.

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Connectivity, confidentiality and confidence: Key issues in the provision of online pro bono activities

International Journal of Clinical Legal Education ◽

10.19164/ijcle.v25i2.722 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 25 (2) ◽

pp. 48

Author(s):

Emma Jones ◽

Francine Ryan ◽

Hugh McFaul

Keyword(s):

Digital Literacy ◽

Legal Education ◽

Literacy Skills ◽

Law Schools ◽

Mobile Phone Application ◽

Legal Advice ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

Pro Bono ◽

The Uk ◽

Work Done

The provision of pro bono activities for law students has become an established feature of the undergraduate legal education landscape in Law Schools in the United Kingdom (“UK”) and beyond, providing the experiential elements of clinical legal education programmes. Pro bono activities conducted online, or utilising and enhanced by technologies in other ways (for example, through the development of a mobile phone application providing legal guidance), are increasingly becoming a part of this offering, reflecting wider shifts within legal practice and society and an increasing recognition of the importance of digital literacy skills. This paper will situate these forms of online and technologically-enhanced pro bono activities both within the wider context of contemporary clinical legal education and also as a part of broader professional and societal shifts. It will explore a variety of innovative approaches being taken internationally, including work done by The Open University’s Open Justice Centre in the UK, before moving on to focus on a number of key challenges and opportunities which may arise through the increasing provision of these new forms of pro bono activities by Law Schools. These include the potential and pitfalls of the technology involved, issues with confidentiality (particularly in the context of online legal advice) and the issue of how to foster trust in the online environment. The paper will conclude with a number of suggestions for areas requiring further research and discussion to enable contemporary clinicians to fully utilise the potential of online and technologically-enhanced pro bono activities.

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Service innovations

Psychiatric Bulletin ◽

10.1192/pb.27.5.183 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 27 (05) ◽

pp. 183-186 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Hermine L. Graham ◽

Alex Copello ◽

Max Birchwood ◽

Jim Orford ◽

Dermot McGovern ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Substance Misuse ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Integrated Treatment ◽

Adverse Outcomes ◽

Community Based ◽

Treatment Approaches ◽

Client Group ◽

The Usa ◽

The Uk

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A perspective on utilizing legal frameworks to obligate service providers to protect human rights in Malawi: A Case of the Mandatory Provision on Pro Bono Services under the Legal Education and Legal Practitioners Act, 2018

KAS African Law Study Library - Librairie Africaine d’Etudes Juridiques ◽

10.5771/2363-6262-2020-3-483 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 483-495

Author(s):

Grace MTAWALI

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Service Providers ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Legal Education ◽

Civil Society Organizations ◽

Human Rights Violations ◽

Access To Justice ◽

Pro Bono ◽

Culture Of Silence ◽

Legal Frameworks

Malawi's Constitution of 1994 changed the law in a pro-human rights direction. It provides for safe guarding measures aimed at protecting human rights. Malawi also has progressive pro-human rights legislations which emulate provisions of international and regional human rights instruments. However, enforcement of legal frameworks remains a challenge, partly due to poverty hence a large percentage of the population is unable to meet legal costs; lack of legal literacy and distance hinders access justice. A culture of silence continues to perpetuate human rights violations, so too uncoordinated efforts by service providers in protecting human rights. The majority of legal practitioners practice commercial law hence over burdening the Legal Aid Bureau with under privileged clients, whose cases mostly border on human rights violations. This paper will look at the opportunities government has in utilizing the legal frameworks to obligate duty bearers to provide services that aim to promote human rights including access to justice for under privileged Malawians. Legal practitioners are now, under the Legal Education and Legal Practitioners Act of 2018, obligated to provide pro bono legal services in order to have their licenses renewed. This has seen a rise in the number of under privileged people, particularly women, able to access justice at various levels. This can also be attributed to human rights awareness done by the Human Rights Commission, human rights lawyers and civil society organizations. This paper will therefore examine the positive impact such an initiative has had in protecting human rights and upholding the rule of law in Malawi.

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Streetlaw – assisting access to justice in the Employment Tribunal: A practice report

International Journal of Public Legal Education ◽

10.19164/ijple.v3i1.834 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 50

Author(s):

Sarah Saunders

Keyword(s):

Supreme Court Decision ◽

Access To Justice ◽

Legal Representation ◽

The Public ◽

Barriers To Access ◽

Previous Edition ◽

Pro Bono ◽

Run Up ◽

The Moment ◽

The Uk

If you have not yet read the judgment of Lord Reed in the Supreme Court decision of Unison v The Lord Chancellor, please allow yourself a little time over the coming weeks to enjoy a clear and evidence-based statement on access to justice in the employment tribunals of England and Wales. The case was brought by Unison, the UK public workers union, and challenged the introduction in July 2013 of the requirement to pay a fee to lodge an employment tribunal claim. Having reviewed some of the key common law authorities and quoting from the Magna Carta and Donoghue v Stevenson no less, Lord Reed concluded that the fee regime was unlawful “because it has the effect of preventing access to justice”. This landmark decision in July 2017 brought an immediate end to the fee regime. Time will tell whether the UK Government will attempt another fee scheme in the future, but there are other more pressing issues occupying Whitehall at the moment. The four-year fee regime and the Unison challenge brought access to justice in employment tribunals very much into the public eye. Other barriers to access were also widely discussed and reported, including the lack of legal aid and legal representation for claimants in employment law matters. A number of law clinics and pro bono schemes operate to give guidance and advice to the public, in addition to the essential work of ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service). The purpose of this paper is to share with you my experience of a university student Streetlaw project at the Cardiff Employment Tribunal providing guidance to unrepresented claimants about tribunal practice and procedure. The concept of Streetlaw is familiar to readers of this Journal as a form of public legal education aimed at helping members of the public to understand their rights. It is also frequently referred to as “legal literacy”, the importance of which Richard Grimes explains in a previous edition of this Journal. The key aim of our Streetlaw project is to educate potential claimants about what to expect in the run up to their employment tribunal hearing and what happens on the day. As I shall explain, however, there are a number of secondary aims and several other beneficial outcomes.

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