Funder: Nuffield Foundation
Awarded: £458,602
Duration: 2019–2023
Staff involved: Gráinne McKeever, Lucy Royal-Dawson , John McCord
Description
This project builds on our previous Nuffield Foundation research on Litigants in Person (LiP) in Northern Ireland, identifying the barriers to legal participation for people going to court without a lawyer and how this can jeopardise their right to a fair trial. This project focused on two outputs: (1) developing practical tools for assisting LiPs to tackle participation barriers and (2) creating descriptors of legal participation. Both projects used innovative methodologies that allowed us to measure and address attitudes towards LIPs in the family court system.
Using human-centred design to develop empathy and supports for litigants in person
The central barrier that Litigants in Person (LIPs) face in being able to participate in hearings is attitudinal (the expectation that LIPs can fit into the system).
A process known as user- or human-centred design (HCD) can, through empathy, counter negative attitudes held against and by LIPs by involving multiple stakeholders in developing supports for people going to court. The research used HCD to test if it could improve empathy and understanding between LIPs and court actors. We found that the HCD process could counter negative attitudes held against and by LIPs within a court system not designed for them.
In testing this process we also found that HCD works to identify an effective way to support LIPs in family court proceedings and to create a product that delivers support. The supports created by the project were a public information website on Family Court Information in Northern Ireland and an online navigation tool to help identify the appropriate route litigants would need to take for their particular circumstances. The website has been sponsored by the Department of Justice since 2023.
The ten descriptors of legal particpation — A Q Methods study
This research describes what the right to participation under Article 6 European Convention on Human Rights looks like within the family court system and recommends what needs to happen to ensure it is protected for litigants in person (LIPs). Mapping the legal requirements of Article 6 ECHR against the lived experiences of LIPs, the research produced a set of 10 descriptors of participation, using Q methodology.
These descriptors identify what needs to happen in practice to meet the legal standard of participation, to prevent breaches from happening.
The descriptors are relevant to each stage of the litigation process, from being able to find and understand relevant court forms to the work judges need to do to ensure LIPs understand what is happening in their hearing.
All of the research outputs from this project and related work are available on the Litigants in Person project website.