Spotlight on EXCEPTIONAL CASE FUNDING

Dr Michelle Waite leads the Exceptional Case Funding (ECF) Clinic. ECF is intended to be a human rights safety net for people experiencing some of the most common civil legal problems, such as sorting out arrangements for children after separation, dealing with finances and property upon divorce and disputes about welfare benefit entitlements. If an individual’s human rights would be breached without access to legal advice and representation, then ECF (a form of legal aid) should be granted.

In the ECF Clinic Michelle and her student team will work with clients who need to make an ECF application. This is a difficult and time-consuming task for someone to try to do alone. Students working with Michelle will therefore gain knowledge of the human rights and public law arguments that can be made to support an application for ECF, an understanding of how the legal aid system works, experience of completing legal aid application forms, drafting supporting statements, carrying out legal research and interviewing clients.

This year, Michelle will also begin a research study in parallel with the ECF Clinic and as part of the burgeoning Practice work in the Centre for the Study of the Law in Theory and Practice. This will explore how human rights to legal aid in family law and welfare benefits cases are shaped by Legal Aid Agency decision-making. Michelle’s research adopts a novel collaborative adviceled ethnography design. The student team in the ECF clinic will therefore be student advisers under Michelle’s supervision as well as having a role as data collectors and creators in the research study.

Building upon Michelle’s doctoral research in this area, the study will bring new insights into the barriers people may face in accessing ECF and the arguments that can be used successfully to ensure that individual’s rights are protected. There is therefore the potential for significant impact on legal practice in this area, not only for the Clinic’s clients, but also people across England and Wales with family law and welfare benefits problems and other legal practitioners.