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Large‐scale Map or the A‐Z? The Place of Self‐help Services in Legal Aid
Author(s) -
Giddings Jeff,
Robertson Michael
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of law and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.263
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1467-6478
pISSN - 0263-323X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6478.00248
Subject(s) - empowerment , legal service , legal research , business , government (linguistics) , legal profession , service (business) , public relations , scale (ratio) , service provider , marketing , law , political science , philosophy , linguistics , physics , quantum mechanics
Australian legal aid agencies are increasing their reliance on self‐help legal services as part of their service delivery mix. Self‐help legal services seek to harness the productive capacity of consumers,enabling wider distribution of legal aid services. The move to self‐help services as an alternative to traditional legal service delivery appears to have gained momentum in advance of any sound understandings of what legal consumers, and legal aid consumers in particular, are capable of. In addition to the cost benefits of providing self‐help services rather than traditional legal services, these services have been promoted on the basis of their capacity to empower users to address their own legal matters. Examples of the misuse by government agencies of notions of empowerment emphasize the importance of ensuring the usefulness of self‐help legal services.