eprintid: 10144620
rev_number: 7
eprint_status: archive
userid: 699
dir: disk0/10/14/46/20
datestamp: 2022-03-04 14:33:39
lastmod: 2022-03-04 14:33:39
status_changed: 2022-03-04 14:33:39
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
sword_depositor: 699
creators_name: Vanhala, L
creators_name: Kinghan, J
title: The ‘madness’ of accessing justice: legal mobilisation, welfare benefits and empowerment
ispublished: inpress
divisions: C03
divisions: F30
divisions: B03
divisions: UCL
keywords: Access to justice, legal mobilisation, mental health, disability, welfare benefits
note: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
abstract: This article explores a paradigmatic case of legal mobilisation in the UK: successful litigation taken by RF, an anonymous claimant, against the Department of Work and Pensions’ cuts to disability mobility benefits for those facing ‘psychological distress’. While there is now a flourishing literature on the mobilisation of disability rights around the world, socio-legal scholarship has tended to overlook the mobilisation of law by those experiencing mental ill health or the potential contributions of adoption a social model of madness, mental distress and confusion. In developing a ‘thick description’ of the litigation process in the RF case, the article inductively identifies important lessons for scholars of legal consciousness and legal mobilisation. It showcases how the litigation process has both oppressive and empowering potential for those who are otherwise subject to systemic oppression by mental health and welfare benefit services. Second, it broadens the empirical literature on disability legal mobilisation which has largely overlooked the mobilisation of law by mental health service users and psychiatric survivors beyond issues related to psychiatric interventions, institutionalisation and detention.
date: 2022-01-01
date_type: published
publisher: Informa UK Limited
official_url: https://doi.org/10.1080/09649069.2022.2028407
oa_status: green
full_text_type: pub
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 1942393
doi: 10.1080/09649069.2022.2028407
lyricists_name: Vanhala, Lisa
lyricists_id: LVANH22
actors_name: Flynn, Bernadette
actors_id: BFFLY94
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law
pagerange: 1-20
citation:        Vanhala, L;    Kinghan, J;      (2022)    The ‘madness’ of accessing justice: legal mobilisation, welfare benefits and empowerment.                   Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law     pp. 1-20.    10.1080/09649069.2022.2028407 <https://doi.org/10.1080/09649069.2022.2028407>.    (In press).    Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10144620/1/The%20madness%20of%20accessing%20justice.pdf