Adversarial v Inquisitorial Justice.

"Common Law" countries, e.g. England & the USA, use the adversarial system of justice. The inquisitorial system is used particularly in many European countries and continental jurisdictions, e.g.France, which use the "Civil Law" system. The two are completely different & opposite.
https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/constitutional-law/inquisitorial-and-adversarial-system-of-law-constitutional-law-essay.php

I have quite a bit of experience of English law, both through working in the system as a volunteer lay person & in two instances of personal experience. I was a Magistrate for 12 years & I was a member of the Independent Monitoring Board at Gloucester prison for 3 years. One of my two personal experiences of trying to get justice was in the Small Claims Court. The other is a personal injury case which is ongoing.

So I feel I have a reasonably informed view of Justice in the UK. It seems to me that there is quite a lot of Law - but not an equal amount of Justice. Our adversarial system means that ordinary people who come into contact with the Courts stand very little chance of understanding the rules or language of the game - Make no mistake it is a game. A costly game where peoples lives & reputations are at stake.

It is costly in all ways. Financially you either have to have very deep pockets or no money at all to have access to justice. The cost to your psychological well being because of the stress involved can be very high too. Then there is the time cost. My current case will have take 3 years from my accident to get to court.

The cost of actually appearing in an adversarial court is very high indeed. The defence lawyers will try very hard to dismiss or lessen your case. They will use every means to bring your character into disrepute. They will attack your version with every method they can find. That is what adversarial means. You have to be very strong to withstand that public assault.

The inquisitorial system requires the Judge to take the role of actively enquiring & investigating, rather than being the arbiter between the adversasial barristers. The inquisitorial system seems to me to be far fairer. Every method is used to find the true facts of the case in advance of it appearing in Court.

Unless it is a matter of principle,injury or a really serious charge against you, I can't see how many people have the incentive to go to Court.