Moving Towards a Client-Centred Approach to Legal Advice: Examining the Potential of Qualitative Empirical Research to Explore Empowerment in a University Hosted Interdisciplinary Student Run Clinic

Abstract

This paper applies the notion of empowerment to clients seeking legal advice. We advocate for the adoption of a different approach to client care in the legal setting modelled on that adopted in the UK by the NHS in healthcare. We argue that moving towards a client-centred approach to legal advice giving may help to provide a possible solution to the lack of public funding for legal advice by enabling more clients to take more personal action to manage their legal issues than at present. This article explores the potential for the use of qualitative research approaches - widely used in health research to understand the perspective of patients - in a law nursing clinical setting. Specifically, it will consider how qualitative research can be used to seek out and understand clients’ viewpoints and particularly to explore how people can be empowered to make sense of their health and wellbeing and their legal needs, when informed by legal and health advice. Furthermore, it will consider how qualitative research can be used to evaluate clinical legal education provision in Law Schools and their efficacy, and in particular to have such evaluations informed by the narrative of clinic clients' viewpoints. The article will consider how the findings of such research methods can be used to inform and develop legal and clinical practice, with a view to improving professional service delivery and potentially establishing a different holistic approach to client care approaches in the legal profession. The University of Portsmouth will host an interdisciplinary (Law and Nursing) student clinic, with the aim of providing educational opportunities together with legal and health advice to some of the most vulnerable people in the local community. An innovative research programme that will run in tandem with the clinic will explore the relationship between motivation, well-being and empowerment.