ACCESS TO LAW AND JUSTICE REQUIRES AND CALLS FOR MORE ACTION

When people say your life can change in the blink of an eye, they mean it. When I look back at the events of the past two weeks, I can say that some of my wildest dreams became true or came closer to reality. My dream has always been to make law and justice accessible by using information, technology, and processes. Hence, we developed a website through which that dream may be fully realized. But I had a short-lived celebration of this feat because as I look back, a grim picture also emerges in relation to the work I have chosen to do under FASZ Legal Consultancy (the Consultancy/FLC). Here is why.

Over the past two weeks, I was invited, for the first time, to be a panelist on NBC’s The Wheels of Justice show. According to Denver Kisting, the producer of the show, “at the heart of its mandate is to bring justice closer to the people.” For reasons that will become apparent below, I accepted the invitation within seconds and my debut appearance took place on 26 March 2023, and a second appearance on 02 April 2023, where we discussed the intricate topic of employment relations (with much focus on the prickly issue of labour hire). During the discussions, viewers asked questions which we attempted to address to the best of our ability, but after it all, one thing became clear to me: there are genuine concerns out there which requires more legal education and easy access to legal information by the average joe.

Over the same period of time, FLC exhibited its services at volume 12 of the kasi vibe festival which took place at Sam Nujoma stadium between 30 March to 02 April 2023. The key words of kasi vibe festival are ‘empowering, connecting, brand building, and innovation’. Our aims in going there were to disseminate legal information to the members of the public who would come to the festival and to sign them up to our website for free. In respect of disseminating legal information, the idea was to distribute information about law firms (business cards, brochures, business profiles), but despite having approached several law firms, not even one came on board. This left us with signing up members for free, which we did successfully. We signed up over 50 individuals subscribers over the 4 days of the festival!

I would like to thank my team and our stakeholders for supporting this effort. If you are reading this, you probably understand why we are doing what we do, so thank you for subscribing. A take home point is that most people didn’t sign up not because they didn’t notice our presence, but because they misunderstood the notion of access to justice and law – they indicated that they already have legal representation or that they personally know a lawyer who can assist them when they are in need of legal assistance! However, having legal representation or knowing a lawyer does not mean you have access to justice and law, and that, to me, calls for more foundational work to be done in respect of access to justice and law.

Lastly, but certainly not least, I was given audi to present the services of FLC to a key stakeholder with the view of establishing a working relationship. While the opportunity was most welcome, I was left with the same feeling I got after all the above engagements and that is, more needs to be done. This is what I wish to address in this short blog piece.

A perusal of our website would reveal that at the heart of our consultancy, as it is with The Wheels of Justice, is to bring justice closer to the people, but we take things much further and wider, by incorporating legal information, technology, and processes in the way we archive that objective. Therefore, all our services are geared to achieve the ultimate goal of making law and justice more accessible to everyone. That is why being on The Wheels of Justice twice was a dream come true because it was perfectly aligned to our objective; and that is why going to Kasi Vibe festival was a manifestation of dreams because it was an opportunity to connect the legal profession with the public, build our brand, an innovative way to improve access to justice and law, and empower those who need empowering (which is you, the subscribers); and that is why, introducing our services to a key stakeholder was a step closer to realizing that dream.

However, I was quickly reminded that no road is without obstacles and we, in fact, just started the journey. I am, however, comforted by the fact that the obstacles revealed themselves and that there are people we can walk side by side with on this journey. One of the obstacles is that the mindset of people needs to be changed from being reactive to being proactive, informed and engaged – law and justice can only be meaningfully accessible to people who understand how it works as opposed to be people who look for law and justice to work for them once they are in trouble. This will require a collective effort from those who possess legal knowledge to go out there and use every platform available to talk about law and justice.

The other obstacle is gatekeeping. Gatekeeping here refers to safeguarding the old ways of doing things at all costs and stubbornness or fear of change. There is a saying that the only constant thing is change, and John F. Kennedy once said “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” The undeniable fact is that technology will change the way we do things and there is nothing we can do to stop it. In fact, the technology is already here so all we can do is to prepare for such change and/or adapt. It will change the way we teach law in our law schools, the way we practice law and most importantly, it will change how people access law and justice (legal services). You need to ask yourself, as a legal professional, where will you be when a member of the public can access the legal services you now offer exclusively, on the internet?

In light of the above, what we do now will determine whether people will trust us as legal professionals over Artificial Intelligence (AI) or technology. It will determine whether people will opt for what is already on the internet over what you can tell them by word of mouth. That is why access to law and justice requires and calls for more action now, more than ever. I am thankful to those who are doing what they can, in their own way, to make law and justice more accessible. But to those who are willingly or unwillingly folding arms, the indictment has been served!

Fedden Mainga Mukwata – Legal Pundit