Public legal education in Scotland conference - March 2009

The first conference on public legal education in Scotland took place in Edinburgh in March 2009. Professor Alan Paterson opened the conference saying that he hoped it would be the start of significant initiatives in the future.

Gemma Crompton from Consumer Focus Scotland was one of the speakers. Based on her own research, Gemma spoke about the contribution that public legal education can make to improving access to justice.

The conference noted that there was very little knowledge of what PLE activities are currently ongoing in Scotland. One of the recommendations therefore was to carry out a mapping exercise to look at these and how lessons could be learnt from them.

The other speakers were Martin Jones from Plenet who spoke about developing legal capability, Elaine Sutherland from the University of Stirling who provided a Scottish perspective on reaching children and young people, Iain Nisbet from the Education Law Unit at Govan Law Centre and Sarah O'Neill who presented the views of Consumer Focus Scotland. Sarah said that there was a clear need for a co-ordinating body and a long-term strategy.

Several suggestions were made for pilot projects. Read about them in the conference report.

PLE Conference Report Scotland March 2009 (1.7 MB)

During the summer, Gemma Crompton wrote a series of articles for SCOLAG Legal Journal (the monthly magazine of the Scottish Legal Action Group) on Public Legal Education, including reporting on her findings following her recent research into PLE in Scotland. Our thanks go to SCOLAG for allowing these to be reproduced.

Perception and understanding of PLE in Scotland June 2009 (75 KB)
Public legal education and access to Justice July 2009 (73 KB)
The challenges for developing PLE in Scotland August 2009 (73 KB)

The articles can also be downloaded from SCOLAG Legal Journal

Scottish Civil Courts Review

The Scottish Civil Courts Review report was launched by the Lord Justice Clerk, the Rt Hon Lord Gill, on 30th September 2009. Chapter 11 refers to the Edinburgh conference and recommends that 'promotion of public legal education should be an element of any strategy to improve access to justice in Scotland' (paragraph 8).

Chapter 11 of the Scottish Civil Courts Review (174 KB) . This chapter entitled 'Access to justice for party litigants' covers public legal education and self-help remedies.

Chapters 1 to 15, a synopsis and related papers can be found in the review of Scottish Civil Courts report.