On Monday 27 March, the Community Justice Fund publishes its third annual review of the financial health of the free legal advice sector in order to give a broad indication of the issues faced by advice services at the frontline. The report makes clear that Community Justice Fund grantee charities face greater financial challenges this year than…

  Here is what Michael Fawole, Director of the North East Law Centre, told the Access to Justice Foundation about the impact that the cost of living crisis is already having on advice agencies…   We have seen an increase in demand of approximately 40% across our welfare rights projects and majority of the enquiries…

Each year thousands of lawyers give their time and skills ‘pro bono’ to help people who cannot afford to pay for representation. Since 2007, the civil courts have been able to make ‘pro bono costs orders’ in favour of successful parties who are in receipt of pro bono representation. The losing party is required to…

The Access to Justice Foundation has published a new report looking at ‘Specialist Legal Advice Providers,’ which begins to map legal advice funding and the relationship between income streams.  Using data and analysis from 360Giving, the report provides a profile of the sector providers and where available, information on what was being funded, by whom,…

In a recent blog for the Funders Collaborative Hub, the Access to Justice Foundation’s Joint CEO Clare Carter wrote of the importance of the Community Justice Fund partnership to supporting the Free Legal Advice Sector. She discussed such points as: The Access to Justice Foundation’s contribution to the partnership. The value of pooling funds and…

A statement from the Access to Justice Foundation’s Joint CEOs Clare Carter and Ruth Daniel marking International Women’s Day: “This International Women’s Day, here at the Access to Justice Foundation, we are proud of all the Foundation has been able to achieve in providing and allocating essential funding to the many free legal advice charities…

The Access to Justice Foundation is proud to announce that we have established a new community partnership with Legal News Wales, the Welsh legal sector’s first independent and free news publication. With our long tradition of funding free legal advice providers and charities in Wales, we look forward to sharing our new insights, knowledge, experiences,…

Our latest research shows that the not-for-profit specialist advice sector is facing a £17.5 million funding deficit in 2022-23. This will result in over 36,800 vulnerable people losing access to specialist advice, and as a consequence many of them will fall into crisis. This latest research builds on work commissioned by the Community Justice Fund…

Defending the public purse: The economic value of the free legal advice sector September 2021 Read the full report Supporting free legal advice would save Treasury £4bn next year * New economic research shows that Treasury would save over £4bn next year alone by supporting free legal advice for the most vulnerable * Modelling shows…

People who have fallen on hard times during the pandemic will be helped by extra funding for free legal advice, the government has announced. An additional £2 million is being invested in the Community Justice Fund (CJF), which supports more than 70 not-for-profit organisations providing legal help to those who have lost their job, been…

The Cambridge Pro Bono Project, a programme within the Law Faculty of the University of Cambridge, was invited by the Access to Justice Foundation to conduct research into the pro bono costs scheme currently operating in the civil courts in England and Wales. The aim of the research was to obtain information on the level…