WOMEN trying to escape abusive marriages, fathers who want access to their children, homeless people, those who have been unlawfully fired – those are just some of the people who look set to lose out if the government presses ahead with plans to cut the legal aid budget by £350million.

But The Law Society is hoping to change all that with the launch of its Sound Off For Justice campaign.

The campaign is supported by actress Joanna Lumley and writer and campaigner Jemima Khan, and argues that some of society’s most vulnerable and needy people will no longer have access to justice if the proposals are passed.

Organisers are calling on the public to join the fight for legal aid, a scheme that will be 62-years-old next month, by signing a petition letter to Justice Secretary Ken Clarke and by writing to their local MPs.

Someone who has done just that is John Masterson, a family lawyer at Lacey Solicitors in Bournemouth, who can see first-hand the impact the budget cuts would have.

“My personal view as a practitioner is that the cuts would mean that the areas of law that could be covered with legal aid would be severely reduced,” he said.

“So it would reduce the availability of any person to get legal aid to take a matter to court. You’ve got to remember that some of the people that we have to act for are really very, very needy.

“They’re poorly paid or unemployed, they have disabilities, both physical and learning disabilities. They’re the people who most need the help with issues involving their family life that we can give them. They’re the majority of the people who qualify for legal aid.”

Mr Clarke said the need to reform the legal aid system was “crucial”.

He added: “The current system of support too often encourages people to bring their problems before courts. In addition, legal aid has expanded into areas far beyond its original scope.

“It is now among the most expensive systems in the world, second only to Northern Ireland, costing over £2billion a year. In the current fiscal climate, this is simply unsustainable.”

Mr Clarke stressed that public funding would still be available for those cases that most required it and that the reforms would encourage “early resolution of disputes instead of unnecessary conflict” and improve affordability and “value for money” for the taxpayer.

According to The Law Society, more than 900,000 new civil legal help cases were opened for people needing professional legal help last financial year, but the government proposes to cut this by 68 per cent.

The society claims this will be achieved by removing funding for certain types of legal problem and whole categories of civil law from the scope of public funding, although criminal legal aid will be “virtually untouched” by the reforms.

“If the cuts were to go ahead, all of those people would only be able to get legal aid if they could show that there had been, for example, domestic violence in a relationship,” explained Mr Masterson.

“For example, if we’ve got a father who can’t get to see his son, it might be that the wife or mother is being bloody minded about it.

“At the moment, he can go and get legal aid to go to court and get the judge to make an order to make the mother let him see the child. If the proposals went ahead the father would have to show that there had been domestic violence to be able to get aid.

“That would mean that the child doesn’t get to see his father. As I understand it, if a lady with learning difficulties would not get any legal aid to proceed with a divorce, which would be hugely difficult and problematic for her.”

A number of celebrities have publicly given their support to the campaign including Jemima Khan, comedian Jenny Éclair, Bianca Jagger and impressionist Alistair McGowan.

Joanna Lumley has been quoted as saying: “Everyone has a right to be heard. I support Sound Off For Justice as I believe justice is only just if it is available to everyone.

“Without legal aid, cases like the Gurkha Justice Campaign, which I was privileged enough to be involved with, could never had been fought, let alone won.”

But as well as slowing the court system down, “congesting” it with people trying to represent themselves who don’t know the procedures, Mr Masterson’s main concern was simple: “It’s denying people justice.”

• To find out more about the campaign, visit the website soundoffforjustice.org.