About the Network For Justice

What we do

We are a community
of individuals, organisations, initiatives and projects which share a common goal of supporting people access and utilise their legal rights.
We are a resource
providing a central point of information, connection, signposting, and best practice materials.
We create a space
both physical and virtual, in which to facilitate learning and knowledge exchange and support collaboration.
We convene cross sector groups
of interest and practice providing unrivalled access to new and existing areas of support.
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The Network for Justice provides a centralised space for professionals who are interested in supporting and delivering access to justice. to come together and share ideas, information, knowledge, and learning.

We support that community to navigate and understand what can often be a complex ecosystem so that they can find the resources, people, and expertise they need to better support the communities they serve.

By providing this support, and using our own expert knowledge of the community, we facilitate sharing, connection, and collaboration between services because we know working together to address shared issues and concerns means better outcomes not only for our end beneficiaries, but for the organisations we support.

The Network for Justice works across sectors, jurisdictions, and areas of interest to support and bring together individuals and organisations who work with people in need of help and support to resole their issues.

We work with legal and nonlegal professionals at all levels who bring different insights into the experience of people struggling to access justice. By bringing different experiences and expertise together we are able to share and benefit from a vast array of learning and knowledge enabling our community to better anticipate and meet the needs of their users.

The Network for Justice dedicates the majority of its resources to identifying, collating, and curating relevant learning and best practice from local, national, and international sources, including expertise from outside the access to justice sector to evidence user need, identify issues, and define solutions.

We share relevant information and learning along with highlighted best practice and support to implement changes, with the community.

  • Our Knowledge Centre provides a central accessible space to find resources from across the web on issues relating to supporting sustainable services.
  • Our Research Library collates hundreds of reports, briefings, and research pieces to provide academic insights and robust evidence on key access to justice issues.
  • We consolidate Events and Training opportunities, Vacancies, and Funding opportunities from across the community into one centralised calendar enabling you to see what opportunities are out there for you.
  • We provide updates from across the community via our News feed so you can keep up to date and see at a glance who is doing what.

Our platform is fully interactive allowing you to share your updates with colleagues easily.

We coordinate and facilitate community engagement with resources, updates, and collaboration opportunities by connecting and convening individuals and groups to discuss developments, opportunities, and challenges where interest and practice areas overlap.

We directly connect individuals and initiatives who could benefit from sharing their experiences and learnings, who need peer support, or who are interested in learning more about pre-existing work, projects, and programmes.

We can provide introductions to and recommendations on contacts from across our community who may be experts in their field, have insights from their projects, or who work in relevant areas.

We work together with stakeholders from other sectors, and voices not usually heard within pre-existing structures, to amplifying what already exists, identify areas of consensus or gaps in provision, and assess the need and appetite for coordinated responses.

Who we are

  • Academics and researchers

    People who are exploring or researching the justice sector, how justice is administered and issues affecting marginalised communities.

  • Advice services

    Generalist, specialist and pro bono advice services on legal issues serving marginalised or underserved communities, including legal aid providers, campaigners and support initiatives.

  • Community advocacy and support services

    Organisations, initiatives, individuals and groups that provide support, advocacy or campaigning to or on behalf of their community of place, faith or experience.

  • Court based services

    In addition to court based support services aimed at helping vulnerable court users we also include members of staff at court building who support members of the public as well as members of the judiciary.

  • Developers and technologists

    Using digital elements to deliver and improve access to justice is a growing area of development that requires insight into the communities who we aim to serve.

  • Funders

    Funders or service commissioners that support marginalised communities navigate the justice system and resolve or alleviate barriers to accessing legal support.

  • Local and national community and advice networks

    Everyone from community advice networks to national umbrellas, these initiatives provide insight into on the group realities and experiences of communities.

  • Other legal services, regulators, professional bodies and market providers

    All parts of the justice ecosystem has a role to play in ensuring justice is accessible to everyone and that the Rule of Law is upheld.

We are the only network that supports the full cross sector range of organisations, individuals and initiatives that support people across the justice spectrum.

We support people who are working or volunteering in an organisation or initiative which is supporting marginalised groups who experience barriers in accessing justice.

In addition to community based advice, information, and other support  initiatives, this includes those working in the legal professions, judiciary, court services, advice sector, higher education, legal regulatory bodies, and research institutions.

Why we exist

Innovation and progress in access to justice is happening everywhere but, until now, there has been no common platform where a wide range of people can share information across sectors. This results in a risk that developments and resources are missed, leading to duplication or gaps. he Network for Justice (NFJ) was created to address some of the issues and complexities that the access to justice sector faces including:
  • Fragmentation and a lack of standardised services which limits coordination and the ability to work across different organisations
  • Limited sharing of learning and best practice and a consequent lack of awareness about what tools and services already exist, and how they can be accessed by vulnerable users.
  • The huge impact of consequent duplication and wasted capacity in resource poor organisations.
  • Inadequate referrals into legal aid and other services where users may be eligible.