Last night at Liverpool Town Hall, we hosted our second Journey to Justice event: The Long and Winding Road, an evening built around a simple idea that is easy to say, yet hard to deliver in real life: the law should help people reach truth, accountability, and meaningful change.
The room brought together campaigners, legal professionals and members of the northwest community, all connected by the same question: what does access to justice actually look like when someone has been harmed, ignored, or forced to fight for answers?
It was thoughtful, honest, and at times deeply moving. It was also a reminder that justice is rarely a single moment, it is a journey, shaped by persistence, setbacks, and the courage to keep going even when the destination feels far away.
What does access to justice really mean in everyday life?
Access to justice can sound like a phrase from a textbook, so it helps to bring it back to what it means for real people.
In plain terms, access to justice is about whether someone can use the law fairly and effectively when something has gone wrong. That includes practical questions like: Can you find help? Can you afford advice? Can you understand the process? Can you challenge powerful organisations on a level playing field? Can you get answers that are honest and complete?
For many people, the hardest part is not the legal language is the sense of imbalance, feeling that the system is built for someone else. That is why so much of our work at Broudie Jackson Canter is about making legal routes navigable, and making sure people feel listened to, supported, and taken seriously from the outset.
Why did we bring Journey to Justice back to the Liverpool Town Hall?
Liverpool has a long history of community activism, resilience, and collective determination.
Hosting this event at the Liverpool Town Hall felt important, not just for the symbolism, but because it placed the conversation where it belongs: in the heart of our Merseyside community.
Journey to Justice is about real people and real outcomes. It reflects the fact that meaningful legal change is rarely handed down easily. It is pushed for by those who refuse to be ignored, who continue to ask difficult questions, and who demand honesty and accountability from institutions.
The theme of The Long and Winding Road reflects what we see time and again across public inquiries, accountability campaigns, and lived experience: progress can be slow, and the path is rarely straight. Even so, the people who choose to keep going are the reason change becomes possible at all.
What did our opening speakers say about the rule of law?
We were honoured to hear opening remarks from Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, followed by a formal welcome from Fiona Rutherford, CEO of JUSTICE, alongside Elkan Abrahamson, Head of Major Inquiries at Broudie Jackson Canter.
Their messages were clear and consistent. The rule of law matters most when it protects people in practice, not only in principle. It is not ornamental, nor abstract. It is meant to be a safeguard that responds to lived realities, treats people with dignity, and holds power to account.
That understanding is central to Broudie Jackson Canter’s longstanding relationship with JUSTICE, and it is why this year’s Journey to Justice event was developed in collaboration with the newly established JUSTICE North. The evening was jointly shaped, reflecting shared concerns about access to justice across the north of England and a belief that legal reform must be informed by regional experience, lived reality, and sustained partnership.
This collaboration was not limited to staging an event. It reflects a wider, ongoing commitment to working together to strengthen the rule of law in practice, to support evidence‑led reform, and to ensure that voices too often missing from national legal debate are part of shaping the conversation.
How the JUSTICE North report fits into that journey
The evening also marked the official launch of the JUSTICE North report.
JUSTICE North, a new regional division of the law reform charity JUSTICE, has been working alongside legal practitioners, campaigners and communities across the north of England to address a concern heard repeatedly: that decisions about justice are too often made far from the people most affected by them.
The report asks a simple but urgent question: who is justice really working for when so much power remains concentrated in Westminster, despite repeated commitments to devolution?
Drawing on evidence from across the region, it makes the case that justice systems work best when decision‑making is closer to the people they serve. It highlights practical examples where locally led initiatives have already delivered fairer, more efficient outcomes. These include work at Liverpool Crown Court, where changes to case handling have reduced waiting times from charge to trial by more than 100 days compared to the national average.
The report also points to innovative problem‑solving courts, such as the Family Drug and Alcohol Court in Leeds, which has reduced contested hearings, kept more families together, and delivered significant financial savings.
What links these examples is not policy theory, but partnership: courts, lawyers, public services and communities working together, rather than in silos.
In that sense, launching the report in Liverpool was not simply symbolic. It reflected a shared belief that meaningful reform must grow from lived experience, regional knowledge, and the confidence to ask whether existing systems are truly serving those they are meant to protect.
Find out more about the JUSITCE North report here
What can lived experience teach the legal system about justice?
Some of the most powerful parts of the evening came when the focus moved onto the people who have had to navigate the aftermath of harm.
We heard from Suzanne Massey from DES Justice UK, who spoke about Britain’s silent scandal and the decades-long impact of the DES drug. Suzanne’s story carried a truth that many people in the room recognised immediately: harm can be compounded when institutions refuse to recognise it. After years of suffering in silence, Suzanne has helped build a community that ensures those affected are no longer isolated, and that their experiences are taken seriously.
Find out more about DES Justice UK here
We also heard from Leanne Lucas, a Southport survivor and founder of Let’s Be Blunt CIC, who spoke with remarkable clarity about turning trauma into prevention‑led action. Grounded in lived experience rather than abstract policy, her work focuses on practical steps to reduce knife harm and save lives. During her speech, Leanne asked a series of simple but unsettling questions: how many pointed‑tip knives do we have in our homes and workplaces, and would we even notice if one went missing?
In response, we have undertaken to audit the knives used across all our sites and replace pointed‑tip knives with rounded‑tip alternatives. It is a small, tangible action rooted in the idea that prevention begins with awareness. For those who would like to take a similar step at home, Leanne invites people to make the pledge through Let’s Be Blunt.
Make a pledge to Let’s Be Blunt here
Both talks reinforced something we believe strongly: justice is not a concept. It is the day-by-day reality of people who have been harmed and still choose to speak, organise, and push for a better future and stronger society.
Why did Baroness Hale and Baroness Chakrabarti’s discussion resonate so strongly?
The evening then moved into a fireside conversation with The Rt Hon. the Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE and The Rt Hon. the Baroness Chakrabarti CBE.
It was a rare opportunity to hear two of the country’s most respected legal and constitutional voices speak openly about what justice looks like on the ground, not only in court judgments or parliamentary debate, but in the everyday experiences of people trying to be heard.
The discussion touched on civil liberties, the protection of the rule of law, and the ways the system must evolve to meet the realities of modern harm and modern accountability.
The tone was honest rather than ceremonial. That mattered.
When conversations about justice become too polished, they risk drifting away from the very people justice is meant to serve. Last night did the opposite. It pulled the discussion back towards real lives, real consequences, and the responsibility that sits with anyone who holds legal power.
What happens next, and how can people stay connected?
As the evening drew to a close, we heard final reflections from Joanna Kingston-Davies, Co-Founder of The MAPD Group, who brought together the threads that ran through every part of the programme: lived experience, responsibility, resilience, and the long work of meaningful reform.
Last night reaffirmed something that has always defined Broudie Jackson Canter. Our role does not begin and end in courtrooms, reports, or headline moments. It sits alongside people and communities for the long haul, through uncertainty, resilience, and the slow, difficult work of change.
We stand with those who refuse to be silenced, who ask hard questions, and who keep going when justice feels distant. Journey to Justice is not an event series for us; it is a reflection of who we are and why we exist. Whatever road lies ahead, our commitment remains the same: to listen closely, to challenge power responsibly, and to stand firmly with the communities we serve, for as long as it takes.