Public Legal Education
October 2009 Measuring young people’s legal capability
In 2008, 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. The research was launched by Lord Bach on 16th October 2009.
Measuring young peoples legal capability.pdf
October 2009 Unfinished Business
Editorial in the October edition of Legal Action Group Bulletin. LAG argues that as well as providing leadership, it is essential that the Ministry of Justice develops a strategy for Public Legal Education (PLE) that prioritises the sections of the public that need to be targeted, and gives sustainable funding.
‘PLE’s main social use is in convincing people that the law is something positive which can be used to help them and should not be either avoided or feared. The knowledge of the rights and duties which the law protects is a vital element of social engagement and helps to create a better society. For many marginalised groups, the legal literacy which PLE brings about provides them with an alternative to shouting and asking for the manager or, worse, doing nothing when faced with a problem and becoming disillusioned.’
LAG PLE Unfinished Business October 2009.doc
The article coincided with the launch of the research into measuring young people’s legal capability. Other papers referred to in the article can be found below.
Link: Legal Action Group
February 2009 Researching and evaluating public legal education: principles and practice
Plenet publication launched at the first UK PLE conference, held in London in February 2009. The paper is divided into two parts.
Part One, ‘Evaluation public legal education’ looks at the key role of PLE in empowering the public and improving legal capability. It looks at the evaluation of social actions, the shaping PLE project evaluation and makes some suggestions for how to proceed.
Part Two provides a practical framework for evaluating public legal education projects. ‘A guide to PLE evaluation - key issues’ provides a guide to the benefits of PLE evaluation, the specific character of PLE and the development needs of PLE. The second section includes ‘Designing a PLE evaluation’ which outlines the steps needed to design an evaluation. Appendices include examples of evaluation tools.
Researching and Evaluating PLE principles and practice.pdf
Website: Public Legal Education Network
September 2008 Young peoples’ experience of law-related events: The role of Public Legal Education
Young peoples’ experience of law-related events: The role of public legal education by Lisa Wintersteiger
This paper aims to improve understanding of the need for and value of public legal education amongst young people. Evidence of young people’s lack of awareness of legal right’s and processes contrasts with the increased likelihood of experiencing a wide range of law-related events for which they often do not get help.
The research: Young Peoples Experience of law related events.pdf
Website: Public Legal Education Network
June 2008 The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the nature of legal services
Access to Justice
In this influential book Richard Susskind (2008) argues that in a just society, access to justice should be extended to include legal guidance and legal health promotion - legal insight should be at everyone’s fingertips. Susskind argues that access to justice is as much about dispute avoidance as it about dispute resolution. Just as lawyers are themselves able, because of their training and experience, to recognize and avoid legal pitfalls, in a just society - one in which legal insight is an evenly distributed resource - non-lawyers would be similarly forewarned.
Susskind starts with a model he developed in 2000 - the ‘Client Service Chain’. The model proposes that the activity of obtaining legal guidance can be represented along a simple life cycle, made up of three processes. - recognition, selection and service.
Link to article: The end of Lawyers Susskind.pdf
Website: Richard Susskind
September 2007 Possession Prevention Project April 2004 - April 2007
The Possession Prevention Project was a innovative three year project based in the London Borough of Southwark. Southwark Law Centre and Blackfriars Advice Centre worked in partnerhsip to reduce evictions by combining outreach, training and policy initiatives which focused on possession prevention. The report provides an overview of the Project, analysing its effectiveness and how the methodology can be best utilised and built upon in the future as a model of good practice.
Report: Possession Prevention Project 2007.pdf
July 2007 Developing Capable Citizens: The Role of Public Legal Education
Published in July 2007, this seminal report by the independent Public Legal Education and Support (PLEAS) Task Force calls for a new approach to public legal education with the clear objective of increasing the capacity of individuals and communities to deal with law related problems
The report of the PLEAS Task force was launched on 10th July 2007.
Developing Cabable Citizens PLEAS Report July 2007.pdf
Website: PLEAS
Ministry of Justice: Press Release
July 2007 Education implications from the English and Welsh Civil and Social Justice Survey
Research by the Legal Services Research Centre published in 2007 as an annex to the PLEAS Task Force Report above. Using data from their 2004 survey of representative households, the detailed findings make a clear case for the value of public legal education. Evidence from this research indicates that there is a strong associate between knowledge of rights and processes and success in dealing with legal problems. It also shows that lack of knowledge and awareness links strongly to negative consequences and that people who lack knowledge are much less likely to achieve their objectives in dealing with a legal problem. The research was carried out by Alexy Buck, Pascoe Pleasence and Nigel J. Balmer from the Legal Services Research Centre.
LSRC Annex on Education implications July 2007.pdf
July 2007 Speech by Hazel Genn at the launch of the PLEAS Report
Notes on the speech made by Professor Hazel Genn at the launch of the PLEAS report on 10th July 2007.
Prof.Genn speech Launch PLEAS Report 10.07.07.doc
The speech includes reference to the Southwark Preventing Possessions Project. Extract here: The Southwark Preventing Possessions Project.doc
May 2007 Pride not prejudice DVD
Sexual orientation discrimination and harassment in the workplace
(2007, 31 minutes [main section], colour, English subtitles)
This DVD explains the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) regulations which were introduced in December 2003 and describes how they protect people in the workplace. It also provides information on the options available to deal with discrimination and harassment.
For a copy of this free DVD phone the Law Centres Federation on 020 73878570.
Go to SORBAEE Project for more information and to download the worksheets that accompany the DVD.
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