The 1999 publication of Paths to Justice presented the results of the most wide-ranging survey of public use of, and attitudes towards, the civil justice system ever conducted in England and Wales. This book replicates that survey, focusing upon the experiences of ordinary citizens in Scotland as they grapple with the kinds of problems that could ultimately end in the civil courts. In an era of almost unprecedented interest in the resolution of civil disputes and in the procedures and public funding available to assist in the process, there remains a lacuna in terms of knowledge of public use...

The civil justice system supports social order and economic activity, but a number of factors over the last decade have created a situation in which the value of civil justice is being undermined and the civil courts are in a state of dilapidation. For the 2008 Hamlyn Lectures, Dame Hazel Genn discusses reforms to civil justice in England and around the world over the last decade in the context of escalating expenditure on criminal justice and vanishing civil trials. In critically assessing the claims and practice of mediation for civil disputes, she questions whether diverting cases out of...