Our research into legal need and legal capability

The CEO of Law for Life, Dr Lisa Wintersteiger, in partnership with Dr Tara Mulqueen of Warwick Law School and Claire Stern of Central England Law Centre, is conducting research on the experiences of marginalised groups dealing with law-related issues in Coventry in the wake of the pandemic and as the cost of living emergency continues. The research aims to shed light on emerging needs, barriers to accessing justice, the impact of increased reliance on digital technology, and the role of public legal education in improving access to justice for marginalised groups. The interim findings highlight that people from marginalised groups face significant barriers to dealing with law-related issues and accessing justice, including low levels of knowledge of rights and legal processes and sources of legal help. The research will continue with in-depth interviews with individuals and a public legal education project.

Emerging findings

The most prevalent legal needs in the aftermath of the pandemic relate to welfare benefits, housing and homelessness, immigration, employment and social care.
People from marginalised groups face significant barriers to dealing with law-related issues and accessing justice, including low levels of knowledge of rights and legal processes and sources of legal help. Prior negative experiences and a feeling of having ‘gone round in circles’ create fear, anxiety and lack of confidence, while being in ‘survival mode’ makes it difficult to navigate complex systems.
Overall reductions in services, entitlements, and lack of capacity create systemic barriers to accessing health and legal support, and systems are particularly hard to navigate for people who already struggling due to intersecting vulnerabilities.
Digitisation can make it more difficult to access help and support, and it can compound feelings of alienation. A lack of internet access and low levels of digital skills creates barriers to using online systems.
Trusted intermediaries - organisations like foodbanks and social supermarkets, mental health charities, housing providers, and support and advocacy organisations - play a pivotal role in providing practical support for people from marginalised groups to access justice. They actively participate in finding solutions and resolving issues at the earliest stage, including signposting, referrals, practical support, form filling, interpreting, and advocacy. More needs to be done to understand their capacity and willingness to take on this role, and what support they need to do it effectively.

Read the full 5 page briefing.

The next phases of the research will feature in-depth interviews with individuals who have been supported by the intermediaries and direct accounts of their experiences, as well as a public legal education project with the intermediaries focused on tackling the issues identified in the study. Sign up for our newsletter to keep up-to-date on the full report release and more.

Commissioned by the TDS Charitable Foundation in 2015, Law for Life produced this short report assessing the legal information and training resources available for tenants in the private rented sector. In order to identify gaps in the provision and dissemination of information and training resources for tenants in the private rented sector, Law for Life conducted a survey among organisations working with private tenants and a literature review of existing information resources. Our aim was to gain a sense of both what resources are available and how intermediary organisations engage with those resources, in an effort to identify where future effort and investment might be directed.

The 2015 report produced by Law for Life analyses the findings of the 2010 and 2012 UK Civil and Social Justice Panel Survey. The Civil and Social Justice Panel Survey (CSJPS) is a nationally representative survey of people’s experience of, and response to, problems with a legal dimension and involved face-to-face interviews with 5,113 respondents aged 16 and over in their own homes across two waves, the first in 2010, the second in 2012.

In 2008, Law for Life’s predecessor, the Public Legal Education Network, commissioned Independent Academic Research Studies (IARS) to carry out an exploratory study on young people's legal capability. The study, published in 2009, signifies an important new approach to looking at the need for and delivery of public legal education.

The research aimed to get a better understanding of the components of legal capability to help develop a conceptual model that could provide the basis for a future baseline survey of the levels and types of legal capability in the wider population. The study considered young peoples' knowledge, skill and attitudes to legal problems.