Litigants in Person and the Family Court: The Accessibility of Family Justice After LASPO

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012 marked a significant shift in the way in which people are able to access and use private family law, by exacerbating several historical problems relating to the availability of advice and representation and reserving legal aid for a minority of ‘vulnerable’ individuals. This thesis contributes to a growing body of literature which examines the experiences of litigants in person (LIPs) who are now self-representing in these cases, in order to consider the potential implications of the post-LASPO family justice system. The thesis utilises a unique theoretical framework derived from feminist theory, Bourdieusian class theory, vulnerability theory and Actor-Network Theory. This is used as a lens through which to explore the accounts of 23 LIPs who were interviewed for this project. Through this analysis, the thesis identifies and evaluates the resources that LIPs may use for support and considers aspects of the court process which may be problematic for those without advice or representation. It also considers the ways in which these experiences are perceived – for instance, it identifies some of the factors that LIPs believe to be
relevant to their ability to self-represent, and the extent to which they view the family court process as accessible without representation. The thesis concludes that the family justice system has specific exclusionary implications for those who attempt to selfrepresent, and these disproportionately affect those contending with a diverse range of circumstances falling outside the definition of vulnerability which has informed this reform. By providing this important insight into the experiences of LIPs, this thesis sheds critical light on the implications of this reform for the broader accessibility of family justice.