Legal professionals’ knowledge and experience of autistic adults in the family justice system

Abstract

Access to justice is a key theme in the family justice system, especially for those with particular vulnerabilities. Autism, a development condition characterised by difficulties in social communication and interaction, and the presence of rigid, repetitive behaviours, presents particular challenges in this area. This paper reports the findings of a mixed-methods study with legal professionals working in the family justice system, asking about their knowledge of autism, their perceived self-efficacy when working with autistic clients, and their experience of cases involving autistic litigants. The study reports high levels of knowledge, but low levels of confidence, by legal professionals (N = 204), and addresses the experiences of particular cases in follow-up discussions (N = 10). The paper concludes by making a series of recommendations for legal professionals to assist autistic people to engage fully in family court proceedings.

Keywords:

• Autism
• access to justice
• legal professionals
• family justice system
• knowledge and attitudes

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the lawyers and judges who took the time to participate in the two aspects of this project. We would also like to thank Autism Oxford for allowing us to attend a seminar that they gave at the Oxford Family Court in March 2016, and her Honour Judge Vincent for arranging for us to present the findings of this project at the Oxford Family Court in March 2017. We received valuable feedback and ideas from those who attended both events, for which we record our thanks. Versions of this paper were also presented at the Socio-Legal Studies Association annual conference in April 2017, and at the International Society for Autism Research in May 2017. Finally, we thank the anonymous reviewer for positive and helpful input, and John Eekelaar who gave helpful comments on a draft of this paper.

Notes

1. The term ‘autistic person’ is the preferred language of many individuals on the autism spectrum (Kenny et al. 2016), and that is the language that we use in this article, though there is a diversity of views.

2. While the family justice system is also concerned with autistic children, our focus is in autistic adults who are parties to proceedings and their interactions with the family justice system and the legal professionals working within it.

3. Note that autism is thought to be under-recognised and under-diagnosed in women and girls, particularly in those with less severe symptoms (Gould & Ashton-Smith, 2011).

4. While our study focused on experience with autistic adult parties, previous research suggests that any prior experience with autism can impact on knowledge and attitudes (Unigwe et al. 2017). Therefore, when asking this question, we did not exclude experience working with autistic children.

5. Two of our participants, Lawyer A and Judge W, also told us about other cases in which they had been involved, but where the main issue was about a child with suspected or diagnosed autism.

6. Registered Intermediaries – trained professionals who facilitate communication between vulnerable witnesses and members of the justice system – are appointed in criminal proceedings as a ‘special measure’ under s 29 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. Although occasionally used in a formal way in the family courts, according to the Judicial College’s guidance (2013, p. 57), ‘The Ministry of Justice will provide a Registered Intermediary only where there is a direct link to a criminal case in which the witness is involved and where one has already been provided through the Witness Intermediary Scheme.’.

7. It may be noted that this additional time will usually not be remunerated in a publicly funded case, and may impose higher costs for the client in a privately paying case.

8. Given that litigants in person can presumptively take a McKenzie friend into court with them to assist, and a Judge would normally refuse it only with good reasons, there may be more to this story than was reported to us.