Language of DIY Justice: Communication practices & processes
Lead Research Organisation:
Birmingham City University
Department Name: ADM School of English
Abstract
The project explores the language of DIY Justice by focusing on communication as an inherent part of court hearings as well as court processes and procedures. Since cuts to legal aid in 2013, an increasingly high number of litigants in person (LIPs, people who represent themselves in legal proceedings without a lawyer) have been left without affordable options for legal advice. Yet many procedural, administrative and communicative questions about DIY Justice remain unresolved. By focusing on language and communication processes, this project will contribute to the understanding of perceptions and self-perceptions of LIPs and communication requirements imposed on them by the legal profession, courts and the legal system; this will lead to practical suggestions on improve communicative, procedural and administrative challenges currently faced by everybody involved in semi-represented or unrepresented cases.
The project uses quantitative and qualitative mixed methods approach to investigate the following aspects: language used to construct perceptions around DIY Justice; legal-lay communication; and communication and elicitation processes embedded in court administration and procedures (e.g. how information and evidence is elicited through administrative steps and procedural rules). The project is divided into four work packages. The first one contrasts the language LIPs, judges and legal professionals use when discussing their perceptions towards DIY Justice and each other. This will lead to developing resources for supporting LIPs, initiatives on raising awareness of LIPs' ambiguous role in legal proceedings and suggestions for holistic support of those involved in DIY Justice. The second work package will investigate the differences between communication styles of LIPs and legal professionals and lead to initiatives for supporting communicative competence of LIPs and accommodating communication challenges during legal proceedings. The last two work packages investigate communication and elicitation processes embedded within court administration and civil procedure rules, thus contributing predominantly to legal questions. This will lead to specific recommendations for court administration and HMCTS (Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Services) on drafting court forms, guidance materials and court correspondence as well as suggestions to the Civil Procedure Rules Committee on updating Civil Procedure Rules.
The data the project will collect range from a survey of LIPs, interviews with LIPS, judges and legal professionals to court observations and analysis of court bundles, HMCTS court forms and official guidance materials for court users. By incorporating corpus linguistic tools with quantitative and qualitative syntactic & lexical analysis and ethnography of communication analysis, the project presents an innovative approach to researching administrative law and procedural law. The methodological approach of the project will inspire further interdisciplinary research on the topic.
Academic outcomes will include publications (monograph and articles in legal scholarly journals) as well as workshops for legal scholars and practitioners to present the research design and findings and inspire academics in other disciplines. Impact related outcomes will include a touring exhibition, executive summaries and reports for HMCTS and third sector organisations (e.g. JUSTICE, Public Law Project). The project takes a holistic approach to DIY Justice and will result in practical suggestions to address complex language and communication related challenges. By collecting data that HMCTS does not collect, interrelating results from different data sets and focusing on language needs of LIPs, the project will be in a strong position to make innovative and practical suggestions that will contribute to the HMCTS reform.
The project uses quantitative and qualitative mixed methods approach to investigate the following aspects: language used to construct perceptions around DIY Justice; legal-lay communication; and communication and elicitation processes embedded in court administration and procedures (e.g. how information and evidence is elicited through administrative steps and procedural rules). The project is divided into four work packages. The first one contrasts the language LIPs, judges and legal professionals use when discussing their perceptions towards DIY Justice and each other. This will lead to developing resources for supporting LIPs, initiatives on raising awareness of LIPs' ambiguous role in legal proceedings and suggestions for holistic support of those involved in DIY Justice. The second work package will investigate the differences between communication styles of LIPs and legal professionals and lead to initiatives for supporting communicative competence of LIPs and accommodating communication challenges during legal proceedings. The last two work packages investigate communication and elicitation processes embedded within court administration and civil procedure rules, thus contributing predominantly to legal questions. This will lead to specific recommendations for court administration and HMCTS (Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Services) on drafting court forms, guidance materials and court correspondence as well as suggestions to the Civil Procedure Rules Committee on updating Civil Procedure Rules.
The data the project will collect range from a survey of LIPs, interviews with LIPS, judges and legal professionals to court observations and analysis of court bundles, HMCTS court forms and official guidance materials for court users. By incorporating corpus linguistic tools with quantitative and qualitative syntactic & lexical analysis and ethnography of communication analysis, the project presents an innovative approach to researching administrative law and procedural law. The methodological approach of the project will inspire further interdisciplinary research on the topic.
Academic outcomes will include publications (monograph and articles in legal scholarly journals) as well as workshops for legal scholars and practitioners to present the research design and findings and inspire academics in other disciplines. Impact related outcomes will include a touring exhibition, executive summaries and reports for HMCTS and third sector organisations (e.g. JUSTICE, Public Law Project). The project takes a holistic approach to DIY Justice and will result in practical suggestions to address complex language and communication related challenges. By collecting data that HMCTS does not collect, interrelating results from different data sets and focusing on language needs of LIPs, the project will be in a strong position to make innovative and practical suggestions that will contribute to the HMCTS reform.
Planned Impact
The project addresses issues pertaining to administrative law and procedural law and will thus be of interest to legal practitioners and government officials, especially Ministry of Justice and HMCTS (Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Services), as well as the voluntary/third sector organisations. By investigating language use, communication and elicitation processes in the context of court proceedings, the project will contribute to addressing current challenges with administering justice in cases where one/both of the parties are unrepresented. The holistic approach towards DIY Justice the project promotes will contribute to the HMCTS reform: the overall conceptualisation of communication and elicitation as an inherent part of procedural justice is essential for administering fair proceedings. With the introduction of digitisation of courts and potential for incorporating AI into legal practice, the role of language in legal, procedural, administrative and advisory settings will only increase; legal tech companies will thus form another category of the project beneficiaries. The direct beneficiaries will equally include the general public since the recognition of court users' communication needs is key for access to justice. The advantage of the project is that each work package will benefit a wide range of stakeholders, practitioners, policy makers and the wider public. The list of beneficiaries identified for the project includes (further beneficiaries will be identified during the project):
- public bodies (Ministry of Justice, HMCTS);
- professional organisations (e.g. Judicial College, Bar Council, Law Society, Ombudsman, Legal Education Foundation, Nuffield Foundation);
- third sector organisations (e.g. JUSTICE, Public Law Project, Transparency Project);
- voluntary sector organisations (e.g. Personal Support Unit, Citizens Advice Bureau, pro bono centres, university advice clinics);
- international organisations (e.g. EU e-Justice Portal);
- commercial sector (law firms, law tech companies, small businesses that represent themselves);
- court users and the wider public;
- media (trade newspapers).
The impact strategy of the work package on mutual perceptions among LIPs, judges and legal professionals and how such perceptions influence the course of hearings will lead to preparing a touring exhibition, digital leaflets for LIPs, initiatives on raising legal professionals' awareness of ethical considerations of dealing with LIPs, and workshops for academics and practitioners.
The work package on legal-lay communication will focus on identifying linguistic features that can be problematic (e.g. vague language), enabling a post-project development of a digital tool for LIPs that provides automatic feedback on witness statements/skeleton arguments. The list of linguistic features will also be useful for law tech companies whose software elicits information from clients.
The work package on communication and elicitation processes within court administration will contribute to developing a clear strategy for drafting public facing documents (especially court forms and guidance materials) and ensuring LIPs are provided with clear legal and procedural information.
The work package on elicitation processes within civil procedure rules will lead to updating Civil Procedure Rules for semi-represented and unrepresented cases as well as contributing to the development of new Online Civil Procedure Rules; this will help ensure procedural and communicative fairness of proceedings.
The project will engage with all beneficiaries throughout its duration and seek regular feedback by disseminating preliminary results and reports as well as engaging with practitioners via workshops, trade journals and social media. The strength of the project lies in offering innovative and practical suggestions on addressing serious yet often neglected deficiencies in administering justice to the most vulnerable in the society.
- public bodies (Ministry of Justice, HMCTS);
- professional organisations (e.g. Judicial College, Bar Council, Law Society, Ombudsman, Legal Education Foundation, Nuffield Foundation);
- third sector organisations (e.g. JUSTICE, Public Law Project, Transparency Project);
- voluntary sector organisations (e.g. Personal Support Unit, Citizens Advice Bureau, pro bono centres, university advice clinics);
- international organisations (e.g. EU e-Justice Portal);
- commercial sector (law firms, law tech companies, small businesses that represent themselves);
- court users and the wider public;
- media (trade newspapers).
The impact strategy of the work package on mutual perceptions among LIPs, judges and legal professionals and how such perceptions influence the course of hearings will lead to preparing a touring exhibition, digital leaflets for LIPs, initiatives on raising legal professionals' awareness of ethical considerations of dealing with LIPs, and workshops for academics and practitioners.
The work package on legal-lay communication will focus on identifying linguistic features that can be problematic (e.g. vague language), enabling a post-project development of a digital tool for LIPs that provides automatic feedback on witness statements/skeleton arguments. The list of linguistic features will also be useful for law tech companies whose software elicits information from clients.
The work package on communication and elicitation processes within court administration will contribute to developing a clear strategy for drafting public facing documents (especially court forms and guidance materials) and ensuring LIPs are provided with clear legal and procedural information.
The work package on elicitation processes within civil procedure rules will lead to updating Civil Procedure Rules for semi-represented and unrepresented cases as well as contributing to the development of new Online Civil Procedure Rules; this will help ensure procedural and communicative fairness of proceedings.
The project will engage with all beneficiaries throughout its duration and seek regular feedback by disseminating preliminary results and reports as well as engaging with practitioners via workshops, trade journals and social media. The strength of the project lies in offering innovative and practical suggestions on addressing serious yet often neglected deficiencies in administering justice to the most vulnerable in the society.
Organisations
Publications
Grieshofer Née Tkacukova T
(2022)
The Journey to Comprehensibility: Court Forms as the First Barrier to Accessing Justice.
in International journal for the semiotics of law = Revue internationale de semiotique juridique
Grieshofer T
(2023)
Reimagining communication and elicitation strategies in private family proceedings
in Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law
Grieshofer T
(2022)
The importance of being heard Stories of unrepresented litigants in small claims cases and private family proceedings
in Language and Law=Linguagem e Direito
Grieshofer T
(2023)
Remote Interpreting in Immigration Tribunals.
in International journal for the semiotics of law = Revue internationale de semiotique juridique
| Description | The first year of the project was planned primarily for data collection. But due to the delay, first, with institutional clearances (Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Services) and then with the local court clearances (a local civil and family court and an employment tribunal), it was only possible to start the data collection in early January 2020. Furthermore, the start of the pandemic and associated lockdown restrictions meant that the data collection had to be suspended mid-March. Since then, the Principal Investigator has not been able to resume data collection due to the on-going pandemic. As a result, the principal investigator only had eight weeks for data collection (Jan - mid March 2020) instead of the planned six to nine months, which resulted in the data collection being completed only partially. Nonetheless, the principal investigator has been able to generate significant new knowledge, identify new research avenues and explore new methodological frameworks: 1. Advances for forensic linguistics (or applied linguistics) and socio-legal studies: linking communication processes and procedures to (perceptions of) procedural fairness and court procedures in civil and family contexts, which contributes to the understanding of legal-lay communicative challenges and discursive strategies and will be presented as part of the project outputs. 2. Methodological improvements in exploring a wider range of topics around access to justice for lay people: incorporating elements of applied linguistic analysis into the design of empirical methods and the interpretation of findings allows for a more nuanced exploration of not only the language of self-representation but also the rationale for self-representation and court experiences. 3. Exploration of online paths to justice: due to the pandemic, courts had to change the way they operate as they had to conduct a considerable proportion of hearings remotely (by phone or video). This presented an opportunity to explore issues and experiences of court users and legal professionals with online proceedings and remote hearings. The collected dataset thus reflects on the digital paths to justice - the move to the digital-by-default services for the justice system was imminent in England and Wales as part of the ongoing HMCTS reform, but their progression was escalated due to the pandemic. The project was thus ideally positioned to start collecting data on aspects of the justice system which will become more important in the future in the UK and internationally. 4. As part of court observations, the principal investigator started exploring aspects which were not originally planned but proved to play an important role in court proceedings: the importance of being heard for self-represented litigants and the role of social services in family hearings. These findings will contribute to the follow-up projects and will provide an opportunity to collaborate with third sector organisations and social services. |
| Exploitation Route | Academic routes 1. Forensic linguists and applied linguists: the role of linguistic research in exploring (1) readability and comprehensibility of guidance documents and court communication (2) the complexity of written and spoken interaction within civil and family settings. I have presented a webinar at the forensic linguistics research series of the University of Santo Thomas, Manila, attended by over 150 participants on 10th December 2020. 2. Socio-legal scholars: the role of language and communication in (1) procedural fairness, (2) court processes and procedures and (3) ethical considerations for the legal profession. I have presented a webinar on some of these issues at the University of Birmingham research series on Language and the Law in February 2021. Non-academic routes 1. Charities and third sector organisations: improving procedural fairness through clear communication, improving understanding of legal-lay communication challenges (current engagement with JUSTICE and Network for Justice); 2. Courts management/administration and HMCTS: strengthening clarity of guidance documents and procedural information for online applications, exploring experiences of court users and legal professionals (the preliminary report is being prepared for May 2021 release and will be sent to HMCTS, professional bodies and third-party organisations); 3. Legal practitioners: ethical considerations for legal professionals when dealing with self-represented litigants (part of the mid-project report) and the changing landscape of legal advice provision; 4. Wider public: the findings of the project related to the experiences of court users have been compiled in the form of an online exhibition (released in February 2021). During the first year of the project, the principal investigator has had preliminary engagement with several organisations, mainly JUSTICE, Network for Justice and HMCTS: 1. Drawing on the existing project findings, the PI has consulted the charity JUSTICE on the clarity of the information leaflet produced by the Hertfordshire police (https://www.herts.police.uk/assets/Information-and-services/About-us/rights-and-entitlements-booklet.pdf). 2. The PI has also held discussions with Network for Justice and HMCTS on how the project can contribute to the strategy for addressing challenges for court users. The mid-project report scheduled for release at the end of May 2021 will be the first step for a more practical engagement with the third sector. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| URL | http://www.bcu.ac.uk/english/research/research-projects/language-of-diy-justice-communication-practices-processes |
| Description | expert witness report |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Research webinar (Facebook live) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Approximately 150 participants attended the webinar which was organised as part of the forensic linguistics research series of the University of Santo Thomas, Manila, and held as Facebook Live event (10th December 2020). The participants were predominantly ERCs (specialising in forensic linguistics and language and the law) and professional practitioners (translators, interpreters, consultants) from 20+ countries. The webinar discussed the project in the context of methodological advancements and novel ways of exploring the role of language in socio-legal research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | http://www.ust.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Academia-January-1-31-2021-FINAL.pdf |
| Description | conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Court Communication on Trial: Legal-lay discourse While exploring legal-lay discourse and communicative practices embedded in court processes and procedures, the paper paid special attention to communicative, conceptual and discursive barriers court users experience when representing themselves and the strategies adopted by legal professionals to support lay people on their journey to accessing justice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The talk "Language of DIY Law: Communication practices & processes" explored the innovate methodology involved in exploring communication practices embedded in legal proceedings and evaluating the extent to which lay people and legal professionals are enabled to participate in the interactions. The issues discussed illustrate the key role language and communication play in procedural justice. The results were written up in two articles for journals Language and Law and International Journal of the Semiotics of Law, both under review. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://slsa.ac.uk/images/slsadownloads/Cardiff_2021.pdf |
| Description | conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Language and emotion in civil and private family proceedings The paper inspired discussion on communicative strategies used by unrepresented litigants to express emotions and concluded by exploring the link between language use, the authenticity of the court user's voice and narrativisation in legal settings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Misrepresentation of Self-Representation: Communication as part of Civil and Family Proceedings The paper illustrated that aligning communicative goals to procedural goals of different types of hearings can support effective information elicitation. The discussion lead to the exploration of communication strategies which have been shown to improve the interaction between legal practitioners and self-represented parties. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Eliciting the story: The comparison of adversarial approach vs. investigative approach in family courts The paper focused on narrativisation practices embedded in private family court processes and procedures, paying special attention to the linguistic strategies used for eliciting narratives in different modes and genres. It sparked questions on the role of language and communication when exploring how the narratives are elicited from court users throughout the different stages of the proceedings, starting from the pre-court stages of initiating the proceedings to the final hearing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Communicative practices in interpreted remote hearings The paper draws on an expert evidence report provided for an appeals case following an immigration tribunals case within in a common law jurisdiction (the parties' names and location were anonymised). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The title of the presentation: "Professional ethics and communication: Lawyers vs. Litigants in Person". The talk sparked the debate on professional ethics and access to justice in legal cases where at least one party is not represented. It was recognised that the focus on language provides an opportunity to explore systemic challenges embedded in the legal system. The talk will be written up as an academic paper in 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.legalscholars.ac.uk/2021/02/05/general-call-for-papers-panels-for-2021-sls-annual-confer... |
| Description | conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The title of the presentation: "The importance of being heard: Stories of unrepresented litigants in civil and family courts". The talk proposed a novel approach to exploring narrativisation practices and sparked the discussion on how information is elicited in legal settings. The talk was subsequently written up as an academic article, currently under review with the journal Language and Law. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.aston.ac.uk/research/forensic-linguistics/events/past-events#international |
| Description | conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Narrativisation practices in civil and family proceedings: When procedures shape the story The paper linked the notion of voice projection to procedural justice and reflected on how the main narratives could be elicited in a more efficient way while also allowing court users more control over their stories. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | online resources and exhibition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The resource was presented as an online exhibition on the experiences of self-represented litigants in civil and family courts in England and Wales and a resource pack for the wider public. The document was distributed via online forums for self-represented litigants and networks for legal professionals. The estimated size of the audience is 100+. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://bcuassets.blob.core.windows.net/docs/brochure-and-exhibition-document-for-the-wider-public-f... |
| Description | research presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The discussion centred on contributions of linguistic research to the family justice field and opportunities for enhancing court users' voices in family proceedings |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | research presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The research talk entitled "Communication practices inherent in court procedures: The interplay between self-represented litigants' needs, legal ethics and procedural rules" for the Language and Law research series at the University of Birmingham sparked the discussion on the use of mixed methodology, the role of language in socio-legal research and the link between language and emotion. The talk has led to the collaboration (with Birmingham Law School) on a new funding application on the role of language in mandatory mediation for private family law cases. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | research presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Sharing expertise with an immigration tribunal: Interpreter-mediated remote hearings The presentation reflected on the following topics: (1) exploring the importance of effective communication in immigration settings; (2) challenging common misconceptions in relation to how narratives are elicited, shared and perceived; (3) proposing safeguarding strategies for enhancing discursive practices in fully remote hearings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |