Digital Justice Journeys

The digitalisation of advice, support and justice processes demands of us a digital capability that not everyone can operationalise. The digital justice system comprises a range of processes and tools including online hearings, virtual advice, technological tools, and forms. We know very little about how lay people make use of digital processes and what role intermediaries (friends and family, GPs, local settings, charities, local advice services, law centres) play in their individual digital journeys. This lack of understanding was exacerbated by the premature implementation of digital justice services during COVID-19. This paper starts to fill the gap in our understanding by asking questions of people about their digital journeys to resolve their justiciable grievances.

Often the advice sector is the first interaction that people have with the legal system. This project focusses on the advice space as a main site through which to explore the role of intermediaries as well as their range of clients. The role of intermediaries in assisting people to access, use and make sense of the online process is very important, especially for those who do not have sufficient digital and legal capabilities. The advice sector, for example, acts as expert intermediary between the individual and the online justice system (Creutzfeldt et al 2020; Mulqueen and Law for Life 2022). They help break down the barriers digitalisation of justice can create for people. To which extent this happens will also be empirically captured in this paper.