Exclusive: Support Through Court, which helps people unable to afford lawyers, warns of ‘devastating impact’
A court support service that helps thousands of people who cannot afford a lawyer is under threat after having its government funding pulled, the Guardian has learned.
Left with a £400,000 shortfall in its budget, Support Through Court is about to launch an urgent appeal for funds, without which it faces the prospect of redundancies and the closure of some of its offices. Legal aid was taken away in most civil cases and almost all private family law in 2013. Since then, the proportion of private family law hearings where both parties have a lawyer has almost halved to one in five.The most common scenario in private family hearings is that just one party has a lawyer, accounting for 42% of all cases last year. Legal experts say this creates an uneven playing field in disputes over issues such as access to children and the separating of finances.
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