Assisting litigants-in-person -- Humanising and sympathetic responses -- Translation and disconnection -- Complexity -- Silencing of court users -- Underlining the disparities -- Disconnection -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- FIVE Looking Ahead -- Introduction -- International review -- Methodology for the literature search -- Witness intermediaries -- Ground rules hearings -- Court 'facility dogs' -- Pre-recording witness testimony in full -- Specialist hearing suites -- Specialist judicial guidance -- Reflections on innovative support for participation. Evolution of special measures -- In the criminal courts -- Evaluating special measures in the criminal courts -- In the Family Court -- In the Employment Tribunal -- In the Immigration and Asylum Chamber -- Guidance for practitioners and judges -- Equality of arms -- Impacts of legal aid reforms -- Court users' experiences of self-representing -- Court reform programme and access to justice -- Remote court attendance -- Online forms and processes -- Court closures -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- THREE Conceptualising Participation -- Introduction. Front Cover -- Participation in Courts and Tribunals: Concepts, Realities and Aspiration -- Copyright information -- Table of contents -- List of Boxes, Figures and Tables -- Notes on Contributors -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- ONE Introduction -- Key messages of this volume -- Investigating participation -- Study parameters -- 'Vulnerability' and 'participation' -- 'Participation' in law and legal procedure -- The study -- Notes -- References -- TWO Policy and Practice Supporting Lay Participation -- Approach -- Vulnerability -- Vulnerability in law -- Vulnerability among court users. Interviews with practitioners: rationale and methodological approach -- What is participation? -- Participation entails: providing and eliciting information -- Participation entails: being informed -- Participation entails: being represented -- Participation entails: being protected -- Participation entails: being managed -- Participation entails: being present -- Why does participation matter? -- Participation is the exercise of legal rights -- Participation enables decision making -- Participation legitimates the judicial process and outcomes. Participation provides (potential) therapeutic benefits -- Barriers to and facilitators of participation -- Remote court attendance -- Practitioners as facilitators -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- FOUR Observed Realities of Participation -- Introduction -- Observing court proceedings -- Institutional parameters of participation -- Observed commonalities: stories of conflict, loss and disadvantage -- Conflict -- Loss and disadvantage -- Telling the stories of conflict, loss and disadvantage -- Supporting and facilitating participation -- Responsiveness to vulnerabilities and need. This significant study reveals how participation is supported in the courts and tribunals of England and Wales. Including reflections on changes to the justice system as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it details the socio-structural, environmental, procedural, cultural and personal factors which constrain it.