It is recognised that the poor have unequal access to justice and that this undermines the possibility of equality in society. The reasons for this situation are many. This article from a global conference on ‘Comprehensive Legal and Judicial Development’ attempts to identify the obstacles to poor people accessing justice and to propose some ways in which these problems may be addressed.
The obstacles preventing the poor from seeking justice can be divided into ‘operational’ and ‘structural’ obstacles:
- Operational problems relate to the internal efficiency of the justice system, such as: Lack of cooperation between different bodies within the justice system; lack of legal aid services; lack of pre-trial counselling; and the expense of bringing a case to court.
- Structural obstacles are not only related to the workings of the justice system but are also linked to the organisation of society. They include: The elitism of the justice system, with courts located in urban areas and legal process steeped in specialist language; the vulnerability of the poor, who fear that much-needed social programmes will be cut if they ‘dare’ to claim their rights; and the lack of awareness among the poor of their rights.
- Although these structural obstacles are not necessarily inherent to the justice system, they represent a problem for the equitable administration of justice. Therefore, justice sector reforms must address the above problems.
The author suggests the following policy measures:
- Decentralising the courts to make them more accessible.
- Making court buildings more welcoming to ordinary people, like, for example, the new Prosecutor District Office in a Buenos Aires suburb.
- Making legal language more accessible to the public.
- Shaping the administration of justice to fit the client, rather than the other way round, like, for example, the informal system of justices of the peace in rural Peru.
- Involving all actors in reforms of the justice sector, including the users and NGOs and public interest lawyers representing them.
- Allowing class actions and granting NGOs the right to represent individuals and unorganised collectives in the legal process, in order to give the poor more confidence in claiming their rights.
- Training judges to handle collective claims.
- In areas where lawyers are scarce, training lay lawyers/paralegals to help the poor bring cases to court.
- Supporting NGOs and other civil associations, such as bar associations, in working to provide legal services for the poor.
