Why access to justice matters

Our CEO, David Haynes, spoke at the House of Commons this month, at the launch of Insuring Justice, a report about the significant role that the legal expenses insurance sector plays in the wider civil justice system.

The purpose of the report and its high-profile launch was to raise awareness of the contribution legal expenses insurers already make to helping the wheels of justice turn a little more smoothly.

ARAG alone insures more than 10 million households and millions of businesses in the UK, giving them access to advice over the phone on almost any legal issue and protection from the costs of some of the most common legal disputes.

We want to go further and explore ways in which the various organisations and agencies that support people and businesses experiencing legal challenges can work together to fill the gaps through which some of them fall.

Constituency issues

The audience was an important one, not just for increasing MPs’ understanding of the connection between insurance and access to justice, but because every MP has a constituency office to which local people and small business owners bring their problems, each week.

Many of these issues will be legal in nature; the employee who has been made redundant unfairly and without any proper process; the small business that is struggling to recover the debt owed by a bigger customer.

The challenges that our justice system is facing mean that some of these problems are taking far too long to resolve. We’re already seeing employment tribunal cases being given hearing dates in 2030.

Tribunal troubles

Whether you’re the claimant (employee) or the respondent (employer), waiting years to resolve a dispute is in nobody’s interests. Regardless of who may be right or wrong in a particular case, delay and uncertainty inhibit growth.

SMEs are less likely to invest or hire another employee with a tribunal claim hanging over them and the possibility they might have to pay a substantial award. At the same time, it’s difficult for an employee to move on and find a new job while waiting for a tribunal to decide whether or not they have been treated unfairly.

By the most recent detailed count, there were over 64,000 single employment tribunal claims outstanding, as well as 7,500 multiple claims involving more than 465,000 claimants. That means as many as 70,000 businesses and more than half a million people with an employment tribunal claim hanging over them.

The cumulative effect of all those claims waiting years to be resolved is reduced commercial growth and less personal opportunity.

Slow improvement

The measures that the government has taken to address backlogs in the civil courts seem to be having some effect. But the growing number of tribunal claims being made is negating any impact on the overall backlog and, as a consequence, the time matters are taking to resolve.

Legal protection can only ever be a part of the solution. There will always be people and businesses that don’t have a policy and types of legal issue that are unsuited to an insurance solution.

However, making sure that those who do have policies get early advice on their legal problems and, where appropriate, guiding them through alternative means of resolving their dispute more quickly is often a win for all concerned.

Helping to close the gap for more people and SMEs won’t just extend access to justice, it could also have a small but positive impact on the economy.