Public Legal Education in the information age

When you’re facing court alone, who can you trust?

Legal information has never been easier to find. A few clicks can produce legislation, court judgments, online guidance and, increasingly, answers from artificial intelligence.

But finding information is not the same as understanding the law. When your home, your livelihood, your family or your rights are at stake, getting it wrong can have serious consequences.

In 2025, neither party was legally represented in 47% of private family law cases concluded in England and Wales (Ministry of Justice, Family Court Statistics Quarterly). For people facing the justice system without a lawyer, knowing where to turn, what to trust and how to act can make all the difference.

So who is responsible for making the law understandable to the people who need it? Can technology help close the gap? What role should the courts, lawyers, universities, charities and free legal resources play?

Join Blind Justice UK, the University of Oxford’s Faculty of Law and Mansfield College for a public panel discussion chaired by Joshua Rozenberg KC (Hon), with Helen Mountfield KC, Professor Linda Mulcahy, Rt Hon Professor Sir Ernest Ryder, Julie Bishop, Julia Mazur and Guy Beringer KC (Hon). The event is convened by Edward Romain, founder of Blind Justice UK.

Tuesday 10 November 2026, 4.30pm to 7pm, Mansfield College, Oxford, and online. Free and open to all. Registration is essential. A drinks reception follows the discussion.

The statistic links to the Ministry of Justice publication here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2025

Edward Romain is the Founder and CEO of Blind Justice UK, a registered charity supporting people who face the courts and tribunals of England and Wales without a lawyer, and the author of Alone in Court (November 2026, with a foreword by Lord Smith of Finsbury), which reached number one in its Amazon UK category before publication. Originally trained as a barrister and now regulated by CILEX, he is a published poet whose collection Lost Property and BBC radio features preceded his return to the law, leads the charity's research on the courts and the legal regulators, which has been published as written evidence by two parliamentary select committees, built the free Litigant in Person Navigator, and is Chair of the Legal Panel at WhistleblowersUK.

Joshua Rozenberg KC (Hon) is Britain's most experienced full-time legal commentator. He was the BBC's legal correspondent for fifteen years and presented Radio 4's Law in Action, which he launched in 1984, and he now writes A Lawyer Writes, read by around 25,000 subscribers; he is the only journalist to have been appointed King's Counsel honoris causa, is an honorary bencher of Gray's Inn and served on the board of the Law Commission from 2019 to 2024.

Rt. Hon. Professor Sir Ernest Ryder became Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, in July 2020. His previous role was in the United Kingdom Judiciary, as Senior President of Tribunals and a Lord Justice of Appeal.  He is the legal adviser to the House of Commons Privileges Committee and Committee on Standards. He has published and lectured internationally on issues of family law, the role of a modern judiciary, the leadership and governance of justice, and cultural conflicts in justice. He is a Visiting Professor of Practice in the Faculty of Law, Senior Associate at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies and Chair of the Conference of Colleges in the University of Oxford.  Sir Ernest is a Deputy Lieutenant and former Chancellor of the University of Bolton. He is also an Honorary Professor of the Universities of Lancaster and Bolton.

Linda Mulcahy is the Professor of Socio-Legal Studies at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University.  For the last 30 years she has been undertaking empirical research on how ordinary people experience the legal system.  She regularly works in partnership with NGOs such as the Law Centres Network, the Access to Justice Foundation and the Advice Services Alliance.

Guy Beringer KC (Hon) is the Chair of BAILII, SageTech Medical Limited and the Bingham Centre Development Board. He was previously Chair of UK Export Finance and Senior Partner of Allen & Overy. He chaired the Taskforce on Business Ethics and the Legal Profession, which published its report in 2025. He works with advice sector organisations to try to improve access to justice for all.

Julia Mazur is the defendant in the landmark Court of Appeal case on the interpretation of the Legal Services Act 2007, now known simply as 'Mazur'. She and her husband, Jerome Stuart, represented themselves throughout the proceedings. The case has confirmed that unauthorised people may lawfully perform reserved legal activities under proper supervision.

Julie Bishop is Director of the UK Law Centres Network (LCN), a post that she has held since 2008. Prior to LCN, Julie was Director of the National Association of Community Legal Centres in Australia for over 5 years and worked in the legal aid sector in Australia at community level for almost 20 years. Julie’s professional training is in IT. It was as an IT consultant that Julie first worked in legal aid. Before IT, Julie studied and taught Philosophy at the University of Sydney.

Helen Mountfield KC has been Principal of Mansfield College since September 2018. She is a barrister at Matrix Chambers, and also a judge and mediator, with 35 years of expertise in administrative, constitutional law, human rights and equality law, with particular experience of the higher education sector. Helen has won many awards for her legal work, and appeared over 30 times in the Supreme Court and other constitutional courts. She co-chaired (with Lord Watson) the Independent Commission on the Future of Work, and is a trustee of Index on Censorship.

About Blind Justice UK 

Blind Justice UK is a registered charity (1217562) supporting people who face the courts and tribunals of England and Wales without a lawyer. It provides free public legal information and resources, including the Litigant in Person Navigator, publishes research on the regulation of legal services, and campaigns for a justice system that works for the people who use it. Its founder, Edward Romain, is the author of Alone in Court (November 2026). 

blindjustice.org.uk