Funder: Nuffield Foundation
Awarded: £9,000
Duration: Sept–Dec 2020
Staff involved: Gráinne McKeever, Lucy Royal-Dawson , John McCord, Priymavada Yarnell
Description
When courts moved online due to COVID-19, the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service (NICTS) developed court forms and hearing guidance specific to Litigants in Person (LIPs). Our research examined how effective the measures were in enabling LIPs to participate in both remote and socially-distanced hearings.
The research found that the specific consideration by NICTS of the needs of LIPs as distinct from represented parties was a positive step. Despute this, however, the overall experience for LIPs was that they did not feel the court system treated them fairly due to delays in getting court hearings and contact with children, and the difficulty of participating in remote hearings.
Specific problems arose for LIPs where there were inconsistent approaches to facilitating McKenzie Friends in hearings, inconsistencies in communications between court offices and LIPs, and where the intended support planned for LIPs was not delivered in practice.
All of the research outputs from this project and related work are available on the Litigants in Person project website.