Jessica Mant

Jess is a socio-legal empirical researcher, specialising in issues of access to justice and family law. She is particularly interested in innovations that improve the accessibility of legal systems as well as the empowerment and capabilities of those experiencing legal need.

Jess has published widely on these issues in a variety of leading academic journals and book publishers. Her recent monograph Litigants in Person and the Family Justice System (Hart, 2022) is the first comprehensive book to examine the issue of self-representation in the family courts. A key objective of her research agenda is to produce research and evidence that can make impactful improvements to the accessibility of justice. For instance, her forthcoming co-authored monograph Legal Aid and the Future of Access to Justice (Hart, 2023), which will report the findings of the largest ever census of legal aid practitioners in England and Wales, will be published as an open access (free to read) resource that can be used by not-for-profit organisations and practitioners to support service enhancements as well as advocacy and campaign work within the legal aid sector.

Jess joined Monash Law in 2022 after establishing her career in the UK, where she previously held the position of Lecturer in the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University, and prior to that, Doctoral Researcher and Graduate Tutor at the Centre for Law and Social Justice at the University of Leeds.