HAMLYN - College of Social Sciences and International Studies ...

Civil Justice
act was, to say the least, problematic. Given the gravity of the
situation and the value of the potential claim, the reason given
would be an insufficient justification for inaction. She ought to
have done something to pursue the matter. Something or
someone must be at fault for her failure to do so. To take an
opposite extreme case, if a businessman who has spent good
money on having lawyers draw up a contract, decides to sort
out a problem arising out of the contract over a drink rather
than bringing in his legal advisers, one takes an entirely
different view. He can be expected to know where his best
interests lie and if he chooses not to utilise the legal system, why
would one object? Or, to take examples that could affect any of
us, if, "couldn't be bothered" or "it isn't worthwhile" applies to
the common irritations of ordinary life—the defective moderately
costly consumer item, the collision that puts a dent in one's
car, the holiday hotel that does not come up to expectations, the
landlord's failure to do routine repairs—one generally grins (or
groans) and bears it oneself and on the whole probably expects
others to do likewise. A society where everyone was actively
engaged in asserting his or her legal rights might be an
uncomfortable place. (It is relevant in that context that in nine
out of ten legal problems with a money value in Germ's study,
the amount involved was under £5,000. 28 )
Trying for research purposes to evaluate someone else's
decision to do nothing in pursuing a legal remedy is therefore
an exercise fraught with difficulties. It is only in the rare
extreme case that one can confidently assess the failure to act as
problematic rather than understandable or even laudable.
Can anything be done to change people's appreciation of their
legal situation and so influence their decision whether or not to
take up the cudgels? I suspect that the scope for making a
difference is not as great as is sometimes supposed. No doubt,
more information about law, legal remedies, the legal system
and about how to get advice, assistance and representation,
would help—and it seems certain that in the coming years there
will be an explosion in the amount of such information available,
notably for instance, on the Internet. Nonetheless I would
be very surprised if the information explosion greatly affects the
basic shape of what I have called the pyramid. One reason is
that millions of people are functionally illiterate and are therefore
unlikely to be able to take advantage of personally having
28 At p. 259.
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