Levelling up access to justice (Pt 4)

In many countries, not-for-profit agencies play a role in the delivery of access to justice. In the US, such organisations are major deliverers of civil and criminal legal services. Canada and Australia have differing mixes of private and NGO (not for profit, non-government organisation) provision. In England and Wales, though often ignored in discussion of legal aid, the not-for-profit sector plays a valuable and complex role in its delivery—from the national diagnostic and referral work of the Citizens Advice service to the more geographically spotty provision of the roughly 45 law centres still providing representation with poverty law. The deployment of technology in the not-for-profit field follows this patchwork approach.

Not-for-profit organisations are strapped for cash. They do not have the retained profits to invest in technology. Many exist hand to mouth—though their very survival during the Covid pandemic has required them to develop a capacity to work online. This