Lived Experience of the Law: A research and policy project
About Research questions & approach Project team Project updates & outputs Contact
Lived Experience of the Law: A research and policy project is a partnership between ICPR, Birkbeck and the national charity Revolving Doors. The project is funded by the Nuffield Foundation (JUS /FR-000023828). It began in January 2023 and will be completed by December 2026.
Effective participation in court proceedings is foundational to the delivery of justice; a principle promoted in law, policy, and guidance. It also relates closely to the broader principle of access to justice. Yet little is known about the understandings, expectations, and experiences of ‘participation’ and ‘access to justice’ on the part of members of the public who find themselves caught up in judicial proceedings. To fill this knowledge gap, this project aims to gain insight into the ways in which ‘the law’ is experienced and understood by individuals who are involved in criminal and family proceedings; and to examine the implications of lived experience of the law for effective participation and access to justice.
Research questions and approach
The research focuses on three main questions:
- How are perceptions and expectations of legal rights, justice and the judicial process shaped by individuals’ formal and informal encounters with the law over time?
We have conducted in-depth interviews with a diverse range of people who had recently attended criminal or family court hearings. The interviews focused on formal and informal encounters with the law since childhood and explored how, cumulatively, these encounters shaped participants’ perceptions of legal rights and their capacity and willingness to engage with the judicial process; their conceptions of fairness and justice; and their expectations of the courts and the wider justice system, including barriers to engagement and participation.
- How can the concepts of ‘effective participation’ and ‘access to justice’ most usefully be defined from a lived experience perspective, and what are the main barriers to participation and access?
We are analysing interview findings in the context of developments since 2000 in law, policy, and practice guidance and socio-legal research relating to access to justice and effective participation in England and Wales. Integrating interview findings and other data sources, we aim to: elaborate lay, legal, conceptual, and practice-based definitions of ‘effective participation’ and ‘access to justice’; identify barriers to and facilitators of participation and access; identify areas in which there is the greatest need for policy, practice and educational reform; and scope out potential directions and facets of reform.
- What reforms – in terms of policy, practice and public legal education – are needed to address existing barriers to participation and access, and how can the implementation of these reforms best be supported?
As part of this project, we organised a series of policy workshops to bring together research participants, peer researchers and professional stakeholders to review and discuss study findings. The purpose of the workshops was to develop feasible reform recommendations that would support participation and access to justice, and that were grounded in the practical realities of the courts and wider justice system.
This is a co-produced research project in two respects:
- Peer researchers with lived experience were involved in the design and delivery of all aspects of the research, including as co-interviewers and co-facilitators of the policy workshops. Their involvement helped the research team to develop sensitive and appropriately targeted research instruments; to recruit and build rapport with participants from diverse backgrounds; and to remain alert and responsive to contrasting perspectives.
- The policy workshops were explicitly focused on co-production. These gave rise to conclusions and recommendations developed through discussion, reflection and exchange between justice professionals and lay court users – two groups which rarely meet outside formal judicial proceedings (see outputs).
Head of Evidence and Impact
Revolving Doors
Research and Evaluations Manager
Revolving Doors
If you have any questions or would like further information about this project, please contact us at g.hunter@bbk.ac.uk