Published:  16th September 2026

As part of an upcoming project, PLP invites expressions of interest from litigants in person for research on the Pre-Action Protocol.  

PLP has launched a new research project investigating how to make the Pre-Action Protocol (often called the PAP) even more effective in promoting the rule of law and access to justice. PLP will be establishing a working group to examine how the PAP is working in practice and to produce recommendations for reform.

We are calling on our audience to form part of the working group.

Background of the Pre-Action Protocol

When an individual or organisation believes that a public body has exceeded their powers or violated their human rights, they can pursue judicial review proceedings.  The first stage of judicial review involves using the PAP.

The PAP encourages the claimant bringing the case and the defendant public body being sued to engage in correspondence and to, for example, negotiate or mediate to try to resolve the dispute without litigation and the courts. The aim is to settle the dispute and vindicate the rule of law more quickly and cost effectively than litigation would. Today, the PAP is a major feature of judicial review and, in fact, most claims are settled at the PAP stage.

However, in practice the PAP does not always operate as well as it could.  Some claimants have experienced little to no or merely formulaic engagement from public bodies, for example, and the short judicial review time limits can mean that there is inadequate time to commit to detailed negotiations.  

Purpose of the project: 

  • To identify the access to justice and rule of law challenges associated with the PAP 
  • To highlight good and bad practice in relation to the PAP 
  • To spotlight unfairness produced in individual cases, especially where this would foreground the lived experience of claimants 
  • To make recommendations about how the PAP can be made to positively support access to justice and the rule of law. 

Who are we looking for?

It is important that the working group contains a wide range of perspectives and experiences. It will include, for example, lawyers working for claimants, the government, and public bodies. But it is also important that the working group includes members of the public who have used judicial review without a lawyer so that their experience and perspective is shared and considered. Members of the public pursuing their own claims are referred to as “litigants in person” or LiPs.  

If you are not a lawyer and have experience of using the PAP in the last 10 years by engaging in pre-litigation correspondence with public bodies as part of judicial review and could be interested in being a member of the working group, please contact the PLP Senior Research Fellow who will be leading the PAP project, Lee Marsons. Please note that PLP cannot refer to cases subject to ongoing legal proceedings.

For the avoidance of doubt, submitting information for the research or participating in the working group does not mean that PLP is able to take on any new casework. PLP also cannot unfortunately commit to respond to every enquiry.  

If you are interesting in participating, please contact Lee at [email protected].