3 - Two Areas of Law in Context and the Help-Seeker Journey

Summary

Introduction

This book is about understanding how people accessed the administrative justice system (AJS) during the pandemic and what lessons we can learn as we move on from the coronavirus crisis. Following the two theoretical chapters in Part I, this part offers an introduction to the two pathways to justice in this book. This chapter provides an overview of the help-seeker journey. The help-seeker journey follows the person with a problem and legal need through different stages of seeking help, finding advice and reaching an ombuds or tribunal to resolve their problem. For housing, we look at the advice sector, the Property Chamber and the Housing Ombudsman; and for SEND we look at the advice sector, the SEND Tribunal, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). The emphasis on these institutions allows us to understand in some depth the effects of the pandemic, how they managed to provide their services remotely, and what lessons can be learned for the AJS and the justice system more generally.

Existing research based on legal needs has demonstrated that those experiencing the greatest social and economic disadvantage and marginalization are often the least likely to take any action in response to a rights-based problem (Gibson and Caldeira 1996; Hazel and Beinart 1999; Hertogh 2009; Gill and Creutzfeldt 2018), particularly those people who do nothing in response to a problem experienced, which is relatively common in both housing and SEND contexts.

The impact of COVID-19 on the AJS and its users has been significant. Digitalization by default, remote hearings and buildings not being physically accessible have brought many challenges. Access to advice, to support and to justice has been compromised, especially for marginalized groups (those without, for example, reliable or indeed any internet connection). The nature of the lockdown responses to the pandemic meant that digital systems had to operate in a far from normal environment. Recent reports (LEF 2020; Tomlinson et al 2020) show how parts of the justice system are coping under the pandemic.