Project Launch: Mixed funding models for free and early legal advice

The Centre for Socio-Legal Studies is excited to announce the start of a new two year Nuffield Foundation funded project which will explore ways of providing sustainable funding for the not for profit legal advice sector. This sector supports the most vulnerable in society, but its funding model is widely agreed to be in crisis. The Funding Models for Free and Early Legal Advice project is exploring a range of funding models which remain unexplored in the UK or operate successfully in other countries, and have the potential to be transplanted to the UK to support the work of organisations providing free legal advice.  Examples include Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts and residual fund from collective actions. The project involves an in-depth examination of overseas schemes (history, characteristics, costs and benefits) to assess their potential in a UK setting. There will be four key stages: (a) interviews with providers of free advice to assess priorities and efficient and effective systems for fund distribution; (b) a comprehensive review of overseas schemes; (c) pause and evaluation; and (d) six in-depth case studies.

Professor Linda Mulcahy, the PI on the project said on the launch of the project on 1st April 2025:

This project is an important collaboration between the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, the Access to Justice Foundation and Professor Neil Rickman at the University of Surrey and brings expertise from the world of practice and Universities together. Adopting a multi-disciplinary and comparative approach, it seeks to draw on expertise from within a range of sectors including the free legal advice sector, regulators, professional bodies, banking and insurance. Our innovative methodological approach will involve us testing out evidence based proposals with a range of practitioner stakeholders on a regular basis. Most importantly, we hope that the project will play a part in resolving the funding crisis which means that many of the most disadvantaged in our society do not have access to the support they need in asserting their rights.

The project will result in an open access database, a series of policy briefings, an accessible project report with practical recommendations, academic articles and widespread dissemination of findings.

You can stay updated on our project by visiting our regularly updated website: Mixed Funding Models for Free and Early Legal Advice – Project Website.