Post Unison , the government, the courts & the profession are all looking at the issue of access to justice & what it means to ensure it’s a reality, says David Greene
Remarkably, access to justice has become a topic to discuss again and perhaps there is a mood change in those discussions away from the penury that has been meted out to both civil and criminal justice over the past 10 years.
The Supreme Court started the latest round of debate in July with its ground breaking judgment in R (Unison) v Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 51. The bench took up the argument that many have sought to press for many years against the cuts in legal aid, some of the Jackson reforms and the increases in court fees, namely that the ability to access the justice process is not just for the good of the parties to a particular claim but for the good of society as a whole. The court commented that the view that the justice process only serves the “users” of it has become common policy currency
