Seeking Justice In The Courtroom And Beyond

“The legal system is fair in the way that a soccer match between Manchester City and the Betoota Bandits reserve grade is fair. They're playing the same game, with the same rules applied consistently. But one team has hundreds of millions in resources to invest in their side, and the other struggles to find a beat-up minibus to get to the game, the system doesn't care.” The legal system exists today, as it statistically touches almost zero percentage of the general population, if the legal system interacts with people, then they care. For those that are touched by the legal system is seen by many people as inaccessible, complex, unpredictable, slow and costly, where truth and justice is not even an objective. The data shows that the greater the number of justiciable interactions, the less likely respondents are to perceive the laws and justice system as fair. About 72 per cent of people who had zero interactions expressed a favourable view about the fairness of the laws and the justice system. This percentage declines steadily as the number of interactions increases. Only 40 per cent of respondents with seven or more interactions with the judicial system feel that the laws and the justice system are essentially fair. These statistics[1] represent a damning indictment of the justice system. If millions of people are intimidated, alienated and confused by the prospect of seeking justice in twenty-first century then we should consider our legal system to have failed in its fundamental duty to provide justice to all. [1] Unjust Kingdom: UK perceptions of the justice and legal system, -- Hodge Jones & Allen Law firm, Dec 2015.