OECD Framework and Good Practice Principles for People‑Centred Justice

Annex B. OECD Good Practice Principles for People-Centred Justice

Context

In recent years, access to justice1 has moved to the forefront of international efforts to achieve sustainable development. It was included in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG 16), in a commitment to “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels”.

To secure equal access to justice services, the legal and justice needs of the population should be effectively understood and addressed by the justice system2. However, legal needs surveys completed in the last three decades globally show that there is a significant gap between the main services provided by justice systems and the services best suited to meeting the everyday legal and justice needs of society. The majority of them show that less than 10% of legal needs are resolved by the formal justice system (OECD/Open Society Foundations, 2019[1]). Research also shows that many people face a range of barriers to accessing justice, such as cost, complexity, lack of language skills, remoteness and discrimination.

The COVID-19 health crisis, coupled with the ensuing social and economic crises, has dramatically altered societies around the globe, exposing and exacerbating inequalities. It has also prompted strengthened calls for increased respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law, including greater dignity, equality and justice around the world (Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, 2020[2]). Growing public discontent has also called for justice systems to be more effective, responsive and transparent in addressing injustices and people’s legal and justice needs. As such, genuine equal access to justice for all – to ensure fair opportunities and outcomes for all, free of bias and discrimination – is fundamental to overcoming inequality, securing people’s trust, and protecting the quality and resilience of democratic institutions. In line with the OECD Serving Citizens Framework3, the more people-centred4 a justice system and access to justice arrangements are, (as opposed to being designed only from the perspective of the service providers), the more relevant they will be to the lives of individuals and the more they will contribute to just outcomes. The people-centred justice system offers a broad range of processes and procedures in addition to formal judicial and non-judicial proceedings. The full spectrum of services to obtain remedy to a legal need includes alternative mechanisms for dispute resolution (e.g. mediation, ODR), paralegals, public legal education, community-based justice initiatives, integrated service provision, pre- and post-resolution support, specialised courts and broader court systems (OECD, 2019[3]). The wide range of options and entry points can help provide appropriate and timely assistance that can be tailored to meet the specific legal and justice needs of an individual, at a given time and in particular circumstances.

Making progress towards SDG 16 thus requires countries to recalibrate their lens toward people-centred design and delivery of legal and justice services, ensuring that all people have access to services that are of high quality, appropriate, targeted, timely and cost-effective. This approach also flows from and reinforces the concept of justice as a public service, guiding the modernisation efforts of the justice systems in many OECD countries. It highlights governments’ responsibility to provide public services designed to meet the expectation and needs of their people in terms of access5.

The importance of people-centred justice transformation was already acknowledged in the 2018 Riga Statement on “Investing in Access to Justice for All!”, adopted by high-level participants of the 4^th OECD Global Roundtable on Access to Justice, and were echoed during OECD high-level meetings and subsequent annual Global Equal Access to Justice Roundtables (OECD, 2021[4]). The OECD criteria for people-centred design and delivery of legal and justice services underlined the importance of anchoring the foundation and underlying policy orientation of justice systems in equality and inclusion, accessibility and availability. Added to these calls were other global events and declarations including The Hague Declaration (Ministerial Roundtable on Access to Justice, 2019[5]), a ministerial Roundtable at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit in Ottawa, the launch of the Justice for All report (Task Force on Justice, 2019[6]), and the Global Dialogue of Justice Leaders (October 2020) in the context of the 2020 Global Justice Week (Chair of the Global Dialogue of Justice Leaders, 2020[7]).

Objectives

The proposed Good Practice Principles for People-centred Justice are intended to help policy makers evaluate and improve the legal and institutional framework for improving access to justice, with a view to supporting inclusive economic growth, a thriving investment climate, and quality democracies. Cumulative knowledge arising from justice research around the world shows that this is primarily achieved by putting people and their legal and justice needs at the centre of the justice system. Building on the OECD Framework for People-Centred Justice and nearly a decade of OECD and international research6, the Principles are intended to be concise and accessible to the international community. They could provide a basis for governments, judicial branches and other justice stakeholders to develop more detailed provisions that can take into account country-specific differences and reflect the legal and justice needs of different population groups. It is also relevant to highlight what the Principles are not. These Principles do not aim to provide guidance regarding the detailed structure and governmental constraints required to ensure an independent judiciary free of external influences, nor to guarantee the rule of law. They also do not focus extensively on ensuring high quality judgments. Instead, they provide guidance for the delivery of public justice services to people in the best manner, resting on the assumption that a sound judiciary and equality before the law are required to make this possible.

The Principles promote a people-centred approach to justice system performance, which would focus primarily on identifying and meeting the legal and justice needs of the people as they experience them, whether or not they recognise them as being a legal problem or having a legal dimension; and on generating fair outcomes to move towards more just societies. This calls for:

• understanding people’s needs and experiences with legal and justice services from their perspective

• developing and implementing policies and services that meet those needs, and removing barriers to access as part of a holistic vision for a people-centred justice ecosystem.

A people-centred justice system could include the following characteristics:

• a clear and stated purpose of justice systems and of their various components, giving priority to a people-centred approach to meeting the legal and justice needs of all people7.

• ongoing and co-ordinated research and data to build and maintain a sound evidence base that contains what people’s most common legal problems are, who experiences these problems, and to what extent they are able to resolve them

• ongoing and co-ordinated research and evaluation conducted to identify and maintain an evidence base about what strategies “work” most effectively and cost effectively, for whom and in what circumstances, to address legal and justice needs, including in the planning and delivery of legal and justice services

• clear and accessible language for users that interfaces with all justice system components and more broadly, clear communication strategies about justice services

• wherever appropriate, co-design of legal and justice services between providers and potential users8 to consider user’s needs and experiences.

• investment and service organisation in the justice system appropriately reflecting legal and justice needs of the population, including the areas of greatest need in order to ensure efficient resource allocation and access to services for all.

• systems established for monitoring fair outcomes.

The Principles are presented in five sections: the Foundation, a leadership committed to a people-centred purpose and culture; Pillar 1: Designing and delivering people-centred legal and justice services; Pillar 2: Governance enablers and infrastructure; Pillar 3: Empowering people to make people-centred transformation happen; and Pillar 4: Evidence-based planning, monitoring and evaluation. Each pillar is composed of a list of principles that contribute to its objectives.

As part of the next steps and to support implementation of the principles and the associated Framework, the OECD proposes to develop a series of implementation support tools, including a practical toolkit, based on a maturity model and accompanied by core indicators for people-centred justice.

FOUNDATION: A leadership committed to a people-centred purpose and culture:

A clear purpose, shared vision and supporting culture: establishing a clear purpose and culture of justice systems that place people at the centre as the essential underpinning for the people-centred justice system and justice services. This should include in particular identifying and meeting the legal and justice needs of people as they experience them, as well as committing to the overarching purpose and vision to focus on meeting these needs. That commitment should facilitate a whole-of-state and whole-of-society approach, with a view to empowering public institutions across the branches of power and levels of government to guide decisions about present and future justice transformations.

Respect for the rule of law and fundamental rights: ensuring respect for the rule of law underpins notions of equal access to justice and fair treatment, the protection of fundamental rights, and the independence of the judicial power. It is a basic principle and a foundation of good governance. It is the essential bedrock of a people-centred justice system and culture, and of public trust both in the justice system and in public institutions more broadly.

Leadership, implementation and culture development: putting in place the conditions, and thus creating the culture, to enable the implementation of a people-centred purpose and vision through:

• fostering commitment from all politicians, members of parliament, the judiciary, public officials, legal professionals and interested parties/institutions to ensure successful implementation of people-centred strategies and prevent or overcome obstacles related to resistance to change, while recognising the roles, prerogatives, and overall independence of all concerned parties according to their existing institutional mandates;

• developing whole-of-government and whole-of-state national strategies for people-centred justice accompanied by clear action plans, objectives, expected outcomes and/or targets, and effective policy planning;

• connecting policy agendas across branches of power, levels of government and independent stakeholders through multidisciplinary and interagency approaches and enabling co-operation between public and non-governmental entities;

• continuously striving toward improving the quality and performance of justice services from the perspective of the people and businesses, in order to increase satisfaction with the public services from the user perspective (e.g. access, responsiveness, timeliness, ease of use, perceived fairness of the process and quality of services)9, and thus public trust in the justice system10. This includes considering whether the organisation is providing services that are responsive to the needs of the users in a cost-efficient manner, and whether alternative service delivery models can and should be considered;

• constantly striving to identify, analyse and eradicate possible explicit or implicit bias and discrimination (e.g. based on gender, ethnicity or other identity factors) within the system and in the outcomes it produces. Ensuring all people, including disadvantaged groups, receive adequate and appropriate justice services and pathways.

PILLAR 1. Designing and delivering people-centred legal and justice services

The legal needs of people: the first step to enable people-centred transformation is identifying, understanding and locating legal and hence justice needs through both a representative picture of those needs within a jurisdiction (such as through legal need surveys) and recognising the legal needs of priority groups (such as people with disabilities, victims of domestic violence, Indigenous people and others), through targeted research and ongoing engagement.

Identifying “what works”: deepening understanding of what strategies “work” to meet the diverse legal and justice needs of people and businesses in an affordable and sustainable way through identifying existing available evidence of what works and establishing evaluative processes to address the evidence gaps.

Service availability and accessibility: ensuring a continuum of legal and justice services across the legal and justice chain, provided in a range of formats, programmes and service types. The services should correspond to an empirical understanding of the legal needs (including most frequent ones) and legal capabilities of those who require or seek assistance (including most disadvantaged groups) and should strive to actively overcome the range of barriers to the assistance they require.

Design with people at the centre: putting in place mechanisms and strategies to ensure that legal and justice services are:

• appropriate and responsive to the individual, the issues they face, and their situation and are tailored, proportionate, efficient and sufficiently flexible to accommodate local circumstances, including availability of services along a continuum;

• inclusive and targeted to specific access needs of particular groups. Depending on the national country context, particular strategies may need to be developed, for example, for youth and children, women, elderly people, migrants and refugees, people with disabilities, and other minorities to address the legal and justice needs they may be experiencing during specific stages of life cycles;

• helping to prevent legal and justice needs and contributing to timely resolution, including through legal health and legal care approaches. Recurring legal problems are addressed on a systemic basis to address underlying causes, thereby preventing any further reoccurrences.

Fair outcomes: developing safeguards and procedures to ensure that legal and justice services contribute to fair process and fair outcomes, and enhanced and more sustainable procedural, substantive and systemic outcomes (e.g. increased trust in the justice system, better justice system performance, social inclusion, greater equality and poverty reduction).

PILLAR 2. Governance enablers and infrastructure

Appropriate framework: ensuring the existence and implementation of the legal and policy frameworks necessary to facilitate people-centred justice, including through integration of people-centred justice solutions across different providers (as appropriate), key triage and referral mechanisms, and the enabling seamless resolution of legal issues across justice pathways:

• Establishing clear roles, responsibilities, mandates and accountability of key public stakeholders in designing, leading and implementing people-centred justice initiatives.

• Strengthening horizontal and vertical co-ordination and co-operation mechanisms across all levels of government, across public service sectors and across the justice chain – through formal or informal means to ensure the alignment, interconnection and implementation of people-centred justice initiatives; to support coherence and avoid overlap and gaps; and to share and build on lessons learned from good practices.

• Striving for sufficient and effective enforcement provisions and practical infrastructure in both the formal and informal parts of the justice system. Incentives towards compliance with and enforcement of the decisions of courts, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms (ADR), online dispute resolution mechanisms (ODR) and other dispute resolution mechanisms should be considered.

• Enabling seamless transfer by putting in place mechanisms to ensure that legal and justice services are part of a coherent system that enables integrated justice pathways. This includes triage, seamless referrals, transfers of legal problems and disputes across the service continuum, and collaboration among legal, justice and other human service providers. People obtain access to all the services they need to solve the legal and related non-legal aspects of their problems holistically regardless of entry point for assistance.

Using technology for better access to justice: taking active steps to ensure that technology and data are used in the best possible way to enhance equal and inclusive justice, while ensuring that technological innovations preserve traditional access for people challenged by technology, including access to a service provider.

Investment and resources: making adequate and continual investments across a wide range of public institutions to facilitate the implementation of people-centred justice, while ensuring cost-effectiveness. Financing options include innovative financing and refinancing strategies to promote cost-effectiveness while addressing the root causes of legal, social and economic problems. This includes applying good managerial practices to achieve optimised investments.

PILLAR 3. Empowering people to make people-centred transformation happen

Promoting a whole-of-society approach: granting all stakeholders – individuals, households, businesses, legal professionals, trade unions, civil society – equal and fair opportunities to be informed and consulted in the policy design of justice services. Actively engage them in the policy cycle to enable them to take greater responsibility for resolving legal problems and achieving better outcomes to create more resilient communities, and to source ideas, co-create solutions and seize opportunities to support the achievement of the objectives of people-centred justice strategies. This should be done with adequate time and at minimal cost, while avoiding duplication to minimise consultation fatigue. Further, specific efforts should be dedicated to reaching out to the most vulnerable, underrepresented, or marginalised groups in society, while avoiding undue influence and policy capture.

Legally empowering people: fostering legal capacity of people to participate, manage their own matters and have a voice in the design and delivery of services (and not substantive outcomes), where appropriate11, through a wide range of means. These can include the provision of legal and justice information in a range of formats; promoting legal education, self-help and guided help; integrating law as a life skill in public education curricula; developing legal capability-building programmes/modules targeting specific groups during life transitions; and building resilience through post-resolution support. Fostering empowerment and participation of the most disadvantaged will involve providing appropriate support mechanisms, such as community service organisations, to reinforce their participation.

Engaging legal and justice service providers: empowering and promoting effective engagement of people working in the justice system (public or non-governmental (e.g. community-based, private sector-provided) in designing and delivering services that are responsive to legal and justice needs and understanding what works12. It would also need integration of a people-centred justice lens in the recruitment and career development of justice system employees, all the while promoting a diverse workforce free of bias and discrimination.

Engaging non-governmental and private providers: stimulating the availability and accessibility of non-governmental and private legal, justice and related services through appropriate financing, investment, creation of the enabling infrastructure and environment for private and non-governmental sector development, and regulation that encourages innovation and better service delivery13. This should be accompanied by proper regulation to mitigate potential risks with a view to protecting core values and policy objectives such as basic fundamental rights, privacy and effective enforcement of resolutions.

Communication and outreach: actively communicating on people-centred justice strategies and initiatives, as well as on their outputs, outcomes and impacts, in order to ensure that they are well known, to favour their uptake, and to stimulate stakeholder buy-in.

PILLAR 4. Evidence-based planning, monitoring and evaluation

Evidence-based decision making: building and promoting the role of evidence for planning, policy and decision-making purposes, with a view to creating a people-centred justice culture across various providers by means of:

• Improving data availability, quality and comprehensiveness to inform decision making, planning, innovation, investment and reforms in legal and justice services and policies, through: 1) identifying and mapping the nature, scope and impact of legal needs and capabilities of people, businesses and other stakeholders; 2) understanding user experiences and justice pathways; 3) measuring what works, for whom and under what circumstances, in order to learn and adapt; 4) assessing service quality, accessibility, and responsiveness to legal needs, including from the perspective of potential users.

• Developing a comprehensive range of data sources and data collection strategies, including through the use of dedicated national surveys (e.g. legal needs surveys); user satisfaction and journey mapping surveys; targeted studies to engage deeply with particular vulnerable groups and their legal or justice needs; and administrative data from justice, legal and other (social, human and economic) sources, including open data.

• Developing a sound data ecosystem interoperable across all levels of the justice system, supported by appropriate data security and privacy safeguards, governance, evaluation and feedback mechanisms.

• Putting in place mechanisms to support systematic and regular planning for people-centred justice strategies, policy solutions and service delivery based on existing data and analysis, in order to determine policy priorities and objectives, to ensure the ability to respond to legal needs of people, and to facilitate legal empowerment and capability.

• Integrating justice impact assessment into the early stages of the policy, budget and service delivery process for the formulation of new proposals, possibly as part of the broader regulatory impact assessment (RIA), with a view to promoting evidence-based decision making. Such impacts could include, but are not be limited to, the types and volumes of legal inquiries, disputes and legal needs; access to legal assistance and other justice services (e.g. alternative dispute resolution processes); the resources or workload of courts or quasi-judicial bodies; and the cost of, and access to, criminal and civil jurisdictions, or the justice system as a whole.

Monitoring and evaluation: Developing and implementing monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for people-centred justice strategies and initiatives by:

• Fostering a culture of learning what works for people-centred justice by increasing the public justice system’s capacity to regularly conduct robust evaluation and assessment of its programmes, policies and services;

• Regularly assessing and reporting on the level of people-centricity, implementation, performance and overall effectiveness of legal and justice strategies, initiatives, public policies and programmes – including at the systemic level and based on identifiable indicators – to assist countries in monitoring their progress towards more people-centred justice processes. These could additionally provide information on the use of tools such as justice impact assessment, legal empowerment and people participation practices, and be supported by developing benchmarks and core indicators of the people-centricity of justice systems;

• Identifying and empowering institutional actors to be in charge of collecting and disseminating up-to-date and reliable information and data (in the justice and related sectors) and putting in place necessary co-ordination and governance mechanisms, infrastructure, processes, technological tools and protocols to facilitate data collection, exchange and use.

Accountability and oversight: establishing mechanisms and institutions to enable accountability and actively provide oversight of people-centred justice service procedures and goals, in order to support policy implementation. Internal mechanisms may include parliamentary committees, ombudsperson offices, and internal audit institutions, while external ones could include non-governmental organisations and expert advisory committees, among others.

References

[7] Chair of the Global Dialogue of Justice Leaders (2020), “Global Dialogue of Justice Leaders, 20 October 2020, Chair Statement”, https://bf889554-6857-4cfe-8d55-8770007b8841.filesusr.com/ugd/6c192f_c146e64ab7654bfe97830231d8b3daf0.pdf.

[5] Ministerial Roundtable on Access to Justice (2019), “Declaration on Equal Access to Justice for All by 2030”, https://bf889554-6857-4cfe-8d55-8770007b8841.filesusr.com/ugd/6c192f_6dce6db9c17c472594ecaeb69f936cf5.pdf.

[9] OECD (2021), “Government at a Glance 2021”, https://doi.org/10.1787/1c258f55-en.

[4] OECD (2021), OECD Access to Justice Roundtables website, http://www.oecd.org/governance/global-roundtables-access-to-justice/.

[3] OECD (2019), Equal Access to Justice for Inclusive Growth: Putting People at the Centre, https://doi.org/10.1787/597f5b7f-en.

[8] OECD (2015), “Serving Citizens Framework”, https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/gov_glance-2015-55-en.pdf?expires=1631617699&id=id&accname=ocid84004878&checksum=227D08D8CB043538CB93EAA9F4BC053E.

[1] OECD/Open Society Foundations (2019), Legal Needs Surveys and Access to Justice, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/g2g9a36c-en.

[2] Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies (2020), “Justice in a Pandemic Briefings”, https://www.justice.sdg16.plus/justice-in-a-pandemic.

[6] Task Force on Justice (2019), “Justice for All report”, https://www.justice.sdg16.plus/report.

[10] UNDP, C. (2008), Making the Law Work for Everyone.

Notes

← 1.  Access to justice concerns the ability of people to obtain just resolution of legal needs and enforce their rights, in compliance with human rights standards. It extends beyond formal resolution processes to include a full spectrum of services counting informal and alternative dispute resolution methods.

← 2.  These Principles and the accompanying Framework for People-centred justice focus primarily on non-criminal matters. For the purposes of these documents, a legal need refers to a problem with a legal dimension in various sectors (e.g. health, social, business, family, and neighbourhood), whether or not this is recognised by those facing them. In turn, addressing legal needs demands access to public justice services and other dispute resolution mechanisms in order to recognise and obtain a remedy to the legal need in question, thus giving place to justice needs. The laws and regulations play a vital role in driving the sound operations and legitimacy of various sectors, including health, employment, education, housing, and entrepreneurship – that people encounter on a daily basis. This means that potential needs and disputes are ubiquitous and flow from everyday life. In contrary to the conventional understanding of justice systems driven by criminal law, the majority of legal issues people face are of a civil and administrative nature. Some of the most prevalent legal needs across countries globally include: disputes related to consumer issues, neighbour affairs, debts and contract enforcement, family, housing, employment, social safety net assistance and nationality. Unlike facing criminal procedure, many people do not recognise the legal dimension of their civil problems; have difficulties to precisely define it; and encounter multiple and compounded barriers in accessing justice. Furthermore, there is substantial evidence that both legal and social issues tend to trigger others, having a cascading and clustering effect. In this context, responsiveness of justice systems to those needs would include the design and delivery of services, which would enable most effective, appropriate and affordable resolution of disputes. The ability of justice systems to respond to legal and justice needs should be interpreted to provide appropriate access and quality of service to enable a timely and fair resolution of disputes (without prejudice to the actual substantive outcome of cases).

← 3.  The Serving Citizens Framework was created by the OECD to provide a comprehensive structure that displays the key dimensions of public service performance that need to be evaluated from a people-centric point of view, irrespective of the nature of the service (OECD, 2015[8]).

← 4.  “People centricity” means taking the needs and voices of people into account when designing, delivering, implementing and evaluating public policies and services. People-centred services are inclusive, tailored to people’s needs and high quality (OECD, 2015[8]). People-centred justice thus refers to a justice system that puts people at the centre and has as its purpose and its design the goal of equally meeting the needs of all people of that jurisdiction, by enabling their effective participation and engagement in the process. This differs from justice systems whose reforms are primarily inspired by the needs or views of the service providers.

← 5.  OECD Serving Citizen Framework in OECD (2021) Government at a glance (OECD, 2021[9]).

← 6.  The proposed Good Practice Principles and associated Framework for People-centred Justice are the result of multiple information gathering processes, including the following: the 2021 OECD Global Roundtable on People-Centred and Accessible Justice (March 30-31^st), attended by over a hundred Ministry of Justice officials, partner international organisation representatives and thematic experts, dedicated a specific session to the presentation of the Framework, and several sessions to dive deeper into several topics that form fundamental parts of the Framework’s Pillars. Past OECD Global Roundtables on Access to Justice that have taken place annually since 2015, related activities in member and partner countries and globally (including those organised by partner organisations) also served as foundations; the Technical Consultation, open to OECD Member States, representatives from partner organisations including the United Nations, the World Bank, the UNDP, World Justice Project, the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, the Overseas Development Institutes, among other, and several academic experts (February 2021); OECD/Open Society Foundations (2019), Legal Needs Surveys and Access to Justice; OECD (2019), Equal Access to Justice for Inclusive Growth: Putting People at the Centre; OECD (2019) Criteria for people-centred design and delivery of legal and justice services; OECD/WJP (2019), Building a Business Case for Access to Justice; OECD and LJF NSW (2020) Brief on Access to justice and the COVID-19 pandemic; OECD (2020) Compendium of Country Practices: Access to justice and the COVID-19 pandemic; extensive body of international knowledge and research developed on legal and justice needs of people and specific groups (e.g., by Law and Justice Foundation NSW Australia, HiiL, Canadian Civil Justice Forum, World Justice Projects and significant other research done in Colombia, United Kingdom, United States and many other countries) and justice for all (e.g., Justice for all report by Pathfinders of Inclusive, Just and Peaceful Societies); as well as lessons learned from the OECD work on public governance, service improvement (e.g., health services, policy for business and entrepreneurship) and other policy areas (e.g., inequality and well-being, inclusive growth, small and medium enterprises), building on multi-disciplinary data and analysis. While these Good Practice Principles derive from the Framework, they are adjusted for the flow and coherence of the text and approach.

← 7.  See n. 2; Legal and justice needs are not randomly distributed across populations. Particular needs are associated with particular social groups or stages of life. Surveys have repeatedly demonstrated associations between disadvantage and legal and justice needs (OECD/Open Society Foundations, 2019[1]).

← 8.  A key consequence of the complexity and ‘specialty’ of justice system reform is that it is common for the population to be inadequately consulted or not consulted at all. A people-centred justice system is one that seeks the involvement of people in the design and delivery of relevant justice services, as appropriate, with a view to providing effective means for ordinary people to participate in legal processes and to enforce their rights, without affecting the ultimate ruling / outcome of the case.

← 9.  Cf OECD Serving Citizens Framework in OECD (2021) Government at a glance. Satisfaction with legal and justice services does not necessarily imply that users will be satisfied with the ultimate substantive outcome of resolving the case.

← 10.  The understanding of access to justice and resolved legal and justice need goes beyond the process utilised and manner of conclusion. Important factors shaping trust in institutions and satisfaction with services are the quality of resolution process and outcome. The perception of process from the user’s perspective considers its various aspects - fairness features, such as: “voice, neutrality, trustworthiness, consistency, and accuracy” (procedural justice); treatment in the process, including “politeness, dignity, and respect by authorities and third parties involved in executing procedures or determining outcomes” (interpersonal justice); provision of information, for instance why “procedures were used in a certain way or why outcomes were distributed in a certain fashion” (informational justice). Measuring perception of outcome addresses “the fair distribution of benefits and burdens” (distributive justice); the extent to which “the outcome which rectifies the damage or loss suffered as a result of the problem” (restorative justice); the level to which the outcome solves the problem (functionality); “explanations for outcomes and the ability to compare the outcomes of similar problems” (transparency) (OECD/Open Society Foundations, 2019[1]).See also the concept of therapeutic justice.

← 11.  Having a voice in the system is key for legal empowerment. Such user engagement, developed through access to information and education, organisation and representation, can influence legal and institutional reforms, inform policy-making and service design and delivery. Consecutively, it will allow placing everyone equally before the law; support people to secure and enjoy their rights and freedoms; participate effectively in justice processes (judicial procedures and beyond) without prejudice to institution and judicial independence; and have improved access to justice and the rule of law (UNDP, 2008[10]).

← 12.  The engagement of people working in the justice system seeks to improve user’s experience when navigating the justice systems, regardless of the outcome. It will support the existence of quality services accommodating people’s needs through, e.g. having dedicated front-desk agents that redirect people to the right legal procedure; encouraging a judge to speak to a child with simplified legal language; or mobilising a private firm that engages in pro bono legal aid.

← 13.  Non-governmental and private service providers are an integral part of the full chain of legal and justice services. The delivery of people-centred realises the wide range of responsibilities across state and non-state bodies and calls for collaboration to timely and more effectively address people’s legal and justice needs. It is key to understand the overlap and opportunities between different service providers and to leverage their collaborative nature to achieve the desired outcomes. It provides for a collation of perspectives and experiences of people facing legal and justice needs and creates space for listening to users of the justice systems. It also allows breaking down policy and service fragmentation, and building up a systematic vigilance to ensure equal access to justice.