Overview

This book is about those who represent themselves as Litigants in Person in the family justice system. It calls for a refocusing of the debate about the historical challenges associated with Litigants in Person as well as the role they should play within the family justice system in England and Wales. Drawing together interviews with Litigants in Person and decades of research into self-representation from across multiple jurisdictions, this book provides an account of the family justice system through the eyes of its users. It employs an innovative socio-legal framework comprising feminist theory, a Bourdieusian theory of class, vulnerability theory, and actor-network theory to explore the journey that Litigants in Person take through the legal, cultural and social context of the family court. It provides fresh insight into the diverse challenges that people face within this process and how these relate to wider pressures within the family justice system. It argues that there are important lessons to be learned from Litigants in Person. By understanding how and why people come to the point of self-representing, and the kinds of experiences they have when they do, the book advocates the importance of forging a more positive and effective relationship between Litigants in Person and the family justice system.

Full Product Details

9781509947355

Table of Contents

Reviews

[T]his book review welcomes Mant’s comprehensive, rich, and critical summary of LIPs and the family justice system … Mant’s book stands as a foundational text that will be useful for academics and policy makers to draw on, especially in the context of the Pathfinder Pilot, which adopts a more inquisitorial and investigative multi-agency approach, and to highlight the need to apply a transformative methodology to ensure that the rights of the child are centred in the family justice system. -- Jane Krishnadas, Keele University, UK * The Journal of Law and Society *

Author Information

Jessica Mant is Lecturer in Law at Monash University, Australia.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available