ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the evolving role of the market and the state in addressing access to justice in England and Wales through legal services regulation and digital court reform. Focusing on developments since 2015, it critically evaluates the ambitious £1.3 billion digital court reform programme, particularly the failed delivery of the Online Solutions Court, a flagship initiative intended to support self-represented litigants. In light of this failure, the chapter explores the judiciary’s and government’s pivot toward a new public-private model, whereby digital legal information, advice, and dispute resolution services are delivered by market actors according to data standards set by the newly formed Online Procedure Rule Committee. It interrogates the assumptions underpinning this vision, raising critical questions about the market’s ability and incentives to serve low-income users, the adequacy of regulatory oversight, and the feasibility of replicating technical governance frameworks like Open Banking in the fragmented legal services sector. The chapter concludes that far from rendering regulation obsolete, the success of this new model may require a wholesale rethinking of the Legal Services Act 2007 to ensure that consumer protection, public trust, and equitable access remain central to digital justice innovation.
Byrom, Natalie, Necessary But Insufficient? Reforms to Legal Services Regulation, Technology and the Role of the Courts in Increasing Access to Justice in England and Wales (May 20, 2024). https://law.stanford.edu/publications/rethinking-the-lawyers-monopoly-access-to-justice-and-the-future-of-legal-services/.
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