Access to Justice Foundation

The Access to Justice Foundation is a UK-wide charity founded by the legal profession with the singular mission of enhancing access to free legal advice, support, and representation for those unable to afford it, focusing on social welfare law to prevent crises like homelessness, destitution, employment discrimination, and domestic abuse impacts. Rooted in values of social justice, fairness, equality under the law, and sector sustainability, it drives funding through strategic, long-term investments in proven advice organizations, emphasizing early intervention, capacity building, workforce development, and systemic advocacy to reduce legal need and empower marginalized communities for lasting equity.

It prioritizes civil and family law interventions including housing advice for families at risk of eviction and homelessness prevention, welfare benefits support tackling poverty and destitution among disabled people and low-income households, debt counselling and management for individuals in financial crisis, employment law assistance addressing unlawful discrimination for ethnic minorities, refugees, migrants, and vulnerable workers, family matters support encompassing domestic abuse recovery through court document preparation, protective orders, and survivor empowerment, and litigants in person navigation of court processes. Funded activities encompass specialist legal casework, free advice services via Law Centres, Citizens Advice bureaux, and independent agencies, early intervention to halt problem escalation, advocacy for discriminated groups, peer support in legal navigation, trauma-informed legal help for abuse survivors, and preventative strategies building resilience in deprived urban and rural communities, with flexible core funding enabling holistic, person-centred service delivery to sustain the legal advice ecosystem.

Exclusions encompass criminal law, non-legal services, medical treatments, or activities unrelated to civil/family legal support; it avoids short-term fixes lacking evidence of impact or sustainability. Distinctive for its exclusive legal advice focus, deep legal profession governance, government partnerships administering national initiatives, and championing unrestricted multi-year funding for grassroots advice charities serving the most disadvantaged—low-income disabled individuals, domestic abuse survivors, refugee families, discriminated workers, and homeless-at-risk households—it uniquely advances a fairer society through collaborative, evidence-based sector strengthening and marginalised community prioritization.