About Paula
Paula Backen started working as an intermediary with defendants in 2011 and has now worked in over 60 crown courts around England and Wales, providing communication support on many hundreds of cases.
From 2014-2021 she worked as a Registered Intermediary with witnesses. She has also worked extensively in family courts, and in recent years in employment and immigration tribunals.
For many years she has trained and supervised both groups and individuals working in the field and presented to a wide range of audiences.
As Chair of The Intermediary Cooperative at its inception, she led the impressive team of dedicated experienced intermediaries through the tender process to successfully achieve a contract with HMCTS.
Her original profession is Speech & Language Therapy, and more recently she has qualified to provide Emotional Resilience and Anger Management courses. She works predominately with adults and young people, covering a wide range of vulnerabilities.
In 2021 as part of an international working group, she compiled the Justice Intermediary Starter Kit aimed at assisting new states to consider implementing an intermediary scheme to suit their local needs and has practical experience of assisting and training local people in Bulgaria and South Asia.
She is not taking new cases for the rest of 2025, while she focusses on her new appointment as Chair of TIC.
Publications
‘Lost in Translation? Perceptions of Defendant Intermediaries in the Legal Profession’ by S Fairclough, J Taggart, P Backen in Criminal Law Review (7) 2023
Justice Intermediary Starter Kit, at www.justiceintermediary.org, for an international audience (2021)
‘They Just Don’t Get It – communication and the work of an Intermediary with vulnerable
people in the justice system’ by P Backen (2017 awaiting 2nd edition) available on Amazon.