Paths to Justice: What people do and think about going to law

Description

This volume presents a survey of public attitudes towards the civil justice system. It explores the behaviour of the public in dealing with potential legal disputes and problems, as well as potential plaintiffs or potential defendants. It identifies the strategies adopted by those involved in potentially justiciable events to resolve or conclude the matter, use of courts and ADR; and the factors that propel litigants towards the legal system. Of importance in policy formation, the survey also identifies structural factors, such as costs and procedures, or lack of knowledge, which prevent access to the legal system where it is desired. The survey also assesses the effect of this lack of access to the formal legal system on individuals.

Hazel Genn,CBE, FBA, is Professor of Socio-Legal Studies at University College, London.

Paths to Justice is a seminal text: a cataract of revelation about the state of civil justice at the end of the twentieth-century. -- J. P. Burnside * Cambridge Law Journal * This is an important and substantial piece of work which presents a rich and complex picture. It is well written and should be accessible to the very broad audience for whom it is relevant. This book carries important, and at times challenging, messages for planners, funders and providers of services alike, and should become the handbook for Community Legal Service Partnerships. -- Nick Whitton This book will provide the new Commission with a much firmer factual basis on which to make some of the hard choices that will have to be madeProfessor Genns comprehensive work will enable informed choices to be made. -- Ian Willock * Scolag Legal Journal * For the legal profession the value of the work is that it provides an insight into clients' state of mind before they enter a lawyer's office. -- Martin Mears * New Law Journal *