Access to Justice for Litigants in Person (or self-represented litigants) A Report and Series of Recommendations to the Lord Chancellor and to the Lord Chief Justice November 2011 Working Group membership: Robin Knowles CBE, QC (Chairman) Mr Justice Ross Cranston Peter Farr Amanda Finlay CBE Professor Dame Hazel Genn DBE Nick Hanning Rebecca Hilsenrath Alison Lamb District Judge Margaret Langley Vicky Ling Judith March John Sorabji Rebecca Wilkie The Working Group was assisted by Mizan Abdulrouf, Toby Brown, Alex Clark, Graham Hutchens and Chris Morris-Perry 2 Table of contents Chapter 1 Introduction and Terms of Reference ................................................................ 6 Terms of Reference ................................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 2 Overview and Executive Summary .................................................................... 8 Chapter 3 Litigants in Person – “self -represented litigants” ........................................... 13 The term “Litigant in Person” ............................................................................................... 13 A whole spectrum ................................................................................................................. 13 Claimants and Defendants ................................................................................................... 15 SMEs ..................................................................................................................................... 15 A user of the system, not a problem for the system ............................................................ 15 Chapter 4 The landscape ................................................................................................. 17 High existing levels of self-representation ........................................................................... 17 Proposed reductions in legal aid .......................................................................................... 18 Particular pressure on advice agencies ................................................................................ 19 Reductions and change at Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service .............................. 19 Misunderstanding and mistrust ........................................................................................... 20 Inequality of arms ................................................................................................................ 21 Existing experience with small claims hearings and fast track trials ................................... 22 Chapter 5 Approach ........................................................................................................ 23 A framework of principle ...................................................................................................... 23 Access to justice v. access to the courts v. access to lawyers .............................................. 24 Adjusting; becoming less cautious ....................................................................................... 24 The challenge ....................................................................................................................... 25 Key interfaces ....................................................................................................................... 26 Overseas experience and ideas ............................................................................................ 26 Using resources to open up assistance ................................................................................ 28 3 Chapter 6 The minimum core needs ................................................................................ 29 The most important thing: access to objective advice that can be trusted ......................... 29 Advice about risks, including costs ....................................................................................... 32 Chapter 7 The Judiciary................................................................................................... 34 Generally .............................................................................................................................. 34 Assisting self-represented litigants at the hearing .............................................................. 34 Assisting self-represented litigants by explaining and simplifying the system .................... 35 Case management ................................................................................................................ 38 Finality .................................................................................................................................. 38 Judicial awareness of pro bono assistance .......................................................................... 39 Chapter 8 Court staff ...................................................................................................... 40 Chapter 9 Lawyers .......................................................................................................... 43 Paid for legal assistance ....................................................................................................... 43 The lawyers on the other side (where there are lawyers on the other side) ........................ 44 Pro bono legal assistance ..................................................................................................... 46 Chapter 10 The Advice Sector ......................................................................................... 49 Chapter 11 Non-lawyer assistance .................................................................................. 52 Personal Support Units ......................................................................................................... 52 McKenzie Friends .................................................................................................................. 53 Other assistance from law students ..................................................................................... 55 Experts .................................................................................................................................. 57 Support services.................................................................................................................... 57 Chapter 12 IT, Information, Documents and Court Forms ................................................ 58 Generally .............................................................................................................................. 58 Two important projects ........................................................................................................ 63 Telephone hearings .............................................................................................................. 65 Court forms ........................................................................................................................... 65 New systems.......................................................................................................................66 4 Chapter 13 Education ..................................................................................................... 69 Chapter 14 Mediation ..................................................................................................... 70 Chapter 15 Recommendations ........................................................................................ 72 Recommended immediate actions ....................................................................................... 72 Recommended medium term actions .................................................................................. 74 Recommended longer term focus ........................................................................................ 77 The Working Group - short biographies .......................................................................... 78 The Working Group was assisted by .................................................................................... 83 Other contributions to the Report .................................................................................. 84 Appendix 1 Suggested Draft Guidance on what Court Staff can and cannot do for a self-represented litigant ........................................................................................................................... 86 Appendix 2 Suggested Draft Guidance for legal professionals representing against a self-represented litigant ........................................................................................................................... 87 Appendix 3 Suggested Draft statement of what a self-represented litigant is entitled to expect from legal professionals representing other parties in the case ............................................... 89 Appendix 4 Suggested Draft Notice of McKenzie Friend ..................................................................... 90 Appendix 5 Suggested Draft Code of Conduct for McKenzie Friends .................................................. 91 Appendix 6 Using a further sum of money well ................................................................................. 93 5 Chapter 1 Introduction and Terms of Reference 1. Access to justice for all is central to the Rule of Law. The proposed reduction of publicly-funded legal aid, and the current cost of privately-paid legal services, are likely