What do users need from the civil
justice system?
Sarah O’Neill
Head of Policy
Solicitor
sarah.oneill@consumerfocus.org.uk
www.consumerfocus-scotland.org.uk
Civil Justice Advisory Group
Consultation Seminar
13 September 2010
‘The structural and functional flaws in the working of
the Scottish civil courts prevent the courts from
delivering the quality of justice to which the public is
entitled. The Scottish civil courts provide a service to
the public that is slow, inefficient and expensive. Their
procedures are antiquated and the range of remedies
that they can give is inadequate. In short, they are
failing to deliver justice.’
(Foreword, Gill review final report)
The reality for users
‘I was actually shaking to be quite honest
with you….What was going to happen to
me, was I going to go to jail?... I was
sitting outside the court room and I was
biting my nails…and I was actually
crying.. Nobody had said what would
happen to me’.
‘If you haven’t done it before, it can be
quite intimidating when you walk
in….you look in front of you and it’s just
full of solicitors…I mean it’s bad enough
having to bring an action and getting to
that level without then standing there and
feeling that you’re in the wrong’.
Source: The views and experiences of civil court users, Ipsos
Mori- commissioned by the Scottish Consumer Council and
Scottish Legal Aid Board (2009)
Source: Mediation in Action: Resolving Court
Disputes Without Trial, Genn, H. (1999)
What do users need?
1. The skills and knowledge that
allow them to:
• recognise that they have a problem
• recognise that problem has a
potential legal remedy
• identify a course of action to pursue
that remedy
Legal capability
The information and advice environment
Experience and
circumstances
Knowledge and
understanding
Personality
Skills
Behaviour
Confidence and attitudes
Source:
Measuring
Financial Capability: an
exploratory
study,
Financial
Services
Authority,. 2005
What do users need?
2. Access to appropriate advice and
assistance when they need it
‘You get the kind of ‘ostrich effect’
where you shove your head in the
sand and you think it’s just going to
blow away and it doesn’t. And the
longer you leave it obviously the
arrears are mounting and mounting.’
Source: The views and experiences of civil court users, Ipsos Moricommissioned by the Scottish Consumer Council and Scottish Legal
Aid Board (2009
What do users need?
3. Access to less formal means of
resolving their disputes
•
those who have used mediation are very
positive about the process and the
results
• over half of those with a dispute would
prefer it to be dealt with through
mediation
• those who resolve their dispute through
agreement are more likely to think the
resolution was fair
• but issues of awareness and availability
What do users need?
4. More user-friendly formal
dispute resolution mechanisms
• More information about the process
• Less formality and legal jargon
• Quicker and cheaper
More information about the process
‘ I just had the court date and turned up and eventually
one of the court clerks or somebody came over and
said ‘what case are you here for and what’s it about?’
and I told them and they said ‘oh that was dealt with a
few days ago, you didn’t have to come to court….I
wasn’t informed about that, so that was another day off
work.’
‘I thought they would have sent me a letter to remind
me and when I’m back up again and what time.’
‘It’s always ten o’clock and it’s always on a Thursday,
but you can sit there for two hours.’
Source: The views and experiences of civil court users, Ipsos Moricommissioned by the Scottish Consumer Council and Scottish Legal
Aid Board (2009
Less formality/legal jargon
‘ They seem to use a lot of legal jargon…I’m pretty
much a straight talking person. I’m not one for the
words that they use…I could possibly have used the
wrong word or put it in a different way and it wouldn’t
have helped me.’
‘It seemed a bit vague, you know, as to whether, you
know, you’re the claimant and defenders and things like
that. It was all new to us, because we’d never been to
court before.’
Source: The views and experiences of civil court users, Ipsos Moricommissioned by the Scottish Consumer Council and Scottish Legal
Aid Board (2009
Quicker and cheaper
‘it’s not good because it’s something that’s been playing on
your mind all the time, you don’t enjoy your holidays and you
think….maybe I shouldn’t go on holiday, maybe a letter will
come in from the court and I won’t be there to see it myself,
and, you know, it was something that was hanging over me
for about six months.’
‘To me, it should all have been resolved within at least a
month. I think it took two or three months before it was
resolved.’
‘ my biggest worry was that somehow I would lose and then I
would have to pay for the costs, like for the other costs of
their lawyers’.
Source: The views and experiences of civil court users, Ipsos Moricommissioned by the Scottish Consumer Council and Scottish Legal
Aid Board (2009
A public service
‘The civil justice system is a vital public
service which underpins our daily lives.
It supports our family and business
relationships, it protects our legal rights,
and it helps us solve our legal problems.’
(Cathy Jamieson MSP, Minister for Justice, 2005)
What do users need from the civil
justice system?
Sarah O’Neill
Head of Policy
Solicitor
sarah.oneill@consumerfocus.org.uk
www.consumerfocus-scotland.org.uk
Civil Justice Advisory Group
Consultation Seminar
13 September 2010