The senior-most judge of UK has made an appeal for individuals to extend money to a charitable organization whose volunteers support people that are entangled in family and civil court matters but can’t afford to hire a lawyer.
On Sunday, Lady Hale, President of the Supreme Court asked people for donations to support Personal Support Unit through a BBC programme called Radio 4 Appeal in which renowned people appear and ask people for donations to different charities.
Lady Hale told the listeners of the programme that she knows how intimidating family and civil courts could be for people who don’t have legal support of help. Each individual deserves an equal access to legal justice whether or not he/she can afford to hire a lawyer, she further said.
The no. of people getting legal assistance has reduced over 80 percent over 8 years. The critics say that the result of this is unnecessary stress, conflict as well as unsatisfactory justice.
Notably, since the year 2012, protracted austerity has lessened funding by nearly £950m per year, thus causing a major increase in the no. of people that are pressurized to represent themselves without a lawyer. The appeal made by Lady Hale is mainly to revive the controversy regarding cuts.