Participation in Courts and Tribunals : Concepts, Realities and Aspirations

Court reform, the COVID-19 pandemic and court user participation.

Description based upon print version of record.

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This significant study reveals how participation is supported in the courts and tribunals of England and Wales. Including reflections on changes to the justice system as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it details the socio-structural, environmental, procedural, cultural and personal factors which constrain it.

Assisting litigants-in-person -- Humanising and sympathetic responses -- Translation and disconnection -- Complexity -- Silencing of court users -- Underlining the disparities -- Disconnection -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- FIVE Looking Ahead -- Introduction -- International review -- Methodology for the literature search -- Witness intermediaries -- Ground rules hearings -- Court 'facility dogs' -- Pre-recording witness testimony in full -- Specialist hearing suites -- Specialist judicial guidance -- Reflections on innovative support for participation.

Participation provides (potential) therapeutic benefits -- Barriers to and facilitators of participation -- Remote court attendance -- Practitioners as facilitators -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- FOUR Observed Realities of Participation -- Introduction -- Observing court proceedings -- Institutional parameters of participation -- Observed commonalities: stories of conflict, loss and disadvantage -- Conflict -- Loss and disadvantage -- Telling the stories of conflict, loss and disadvantage -- Supporting and facilitating participation -- Responsiveness to vulnerabilities and need.

Interviews with practitioners: rationale and methodological approach -- What is participation? -- Participation entails: providing and eliciting information -- Participation entails: being informed -- Participation entails: being represented -- Participation entails: being protected -- Participation entails: being managed -- Participation entails: being present -- Why does participation matter? -- Participation is the exercise of legal rights -- Participation enables decision making -- Participation legitimates the judicial process and outcomes.

Evolution of special measures -- In the criminal courts -- Evaluating special measures in the criminal courts -- In the Family Court -- In the Employment Tribunal -- In the Immigration and Asylum Chamber -- Guidance for practitioners and judges -- Equality of arms -- Impacts of legal aid reforms -- Court users' experiences of self-representing -- Court reform programme and access to justice -- Remote court attendance -- Online forms and processes -- Court closures -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- THREE Conceptualising Participation -- Introduction.

Front Cover -- Participation in Courts and Tribunals: Concepts, Realities and Aspiration -- Copyright information -- Table of contents -- List of Boxes, Figures and Tables -- Notes on Contributors -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- ONE Introduction -- Key messages of this volume -- Investigating participation -- Study parameters -- 'Vulnerability' and 'participation' -- 'Participation' in law and legal procedure -- The study -- Notes -- References -- TWO Policy and Practice Supporting Lay Participation -- Approach -- Vulnerability -- Vulnerability in law -- Vulnerability among court users.

Description based on print version record.