Vulnerable Users of Court-Connected Mediation: Challenges and Opportunities for Access to Justice

Louis Benjamin has just finished his Bachelor of Arts and Law. He is interested in the role of the law in both reproducing and remedying inequality and social inequity. At the end of his penultimate year of study, he interned for a Tasmanian practitioner involved in a court-connected mediation. The client had a mild learning difficulty and severe psychological trauma. Observing this process triggered an interest in court connected mediation and vulnerable individuals. Louis became interested in the relationship between the roles of lawyers and mediators in achieving individual access to justice on one hand, and the role of case management and the Court’s objective of structural access to justice on the other hand. In this vlog post Louis summarises his research essay on the topic, in which he concludes that there is room within the structure to ensure that vulnerable individuals achieve better equity. Louis makes the case that it is incumbent on practitioners to extend their diligence and tailor their representation to the client’s vulnerability, and that there is scope for targeted professional development and training to that end.

Louis can be contacted at Linked In. 

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