Access to justice foundation unveils plan

28 Oct 2025News

Clare Carter, Chief Executive, Access to Justice Foundation, Clare has experience as a legal aid solicitor and in legal charity management

The Access to Justice Foundation launches its grant-making strategy to distribute unclaimed class action funds

Today, the Access to Justice Foundation launches its grant-making strategy, setting out how it will make good use of undistributed damages from collective actions and the guiding principles for its grant-making. The strategy follows the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT)’s recent decision to award £3.8 million in unclaimed settlement damages from the Gutmann v SW Trains case.

Access to Justice Foundation will focus unclaimed money from collective actions on three core areas: access to legal advice for individuals in their communities, activity to support policy changes, and mass reach through citizen engagement to raise awareness of legal rights. This initiative prioritises funding long-term costs to support free legal advice for those who need it most, both locally and nationally. The Foundation will also seek to fund work that addresses the underlying causes of advice needs, partnering with frontline and community groups to effectively reduce the necessity for legal advice.

Additionally, ATJF aims to engage citizens widely to enhance awareness regarding their legal rights, including consumer redress. They plan to leverage their advice and grantee networks to promote a better understanding of rights and responsibilities while developing a research and insights infrastructure to identify areas of need. Each of these focus areas will be prioritised based on the greatest need, specific case circumstances, and potential impact maximisation. Grant-making decisions will depend on the amount of available funds from each case, balancing immediate needs and long-term capacity-building.

ATJF has collaborated over the past year with consumer and funding experts, including Advice UK, Age UK, Citizens Advice, Consumer Voice, the Law Centres Network, and Which?, to develop this grant-making strategy. ATJF plans to launch an open grants round in early 2026 to distribute funds arising from the SW Trains case. The strategy also outlines considerations for monitoring, evaluation, and learning to ensure the demonstrated impact of their grant-making initiatives.

Legal News desk contact: editorial@solicitorsjournal.com|

Employment tribunal cases rising sharply

Recent Ministry of Justice figures reveal a significant increase in open Employment Tribunal cases and challenges faced by employers

SRA updates guidance for litigation supervision

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has enhanced its supervision guidelines to clarify litigation conduct after recent court rulings

Millions of fathers lack parental responsibility

Many fathers may be surprised to learn about their parental responsibility rights and how to secure them

Re Poundstretcher: cross-class cramdown survives even when six landlord classes say no

The Chancery Division sanctions Poundstretcher's restructuring plan despite six dissenting landlord classes, applying the Adler and Petrofac framework.

Ponsford v Sali: a property partnership's messy divorce shows why documentation wins partnership disputes

The Chancery Division takes a pragmatic, evidence based approach to untangling a property partnership built on undocumented cash dealings.

North Somerset District Council v Secretary of State: failing the flood sequential test is not the end of the story

The Planning Court confirms that a failed flood risk sequential test still gets weighed in the planning balance, not treated as an automatic refusal.

Thomas Armstrong (Aggregates) v Housing Secretary: when landfill buries a quarry's right to be reviewed

The Planning Court applies Pilkington and Hillside to find a 1954 quarry permission can no longer be revived under the ROMP regime.

Clerkenwell Lifestyle v HG Construction: be careful what you call "agreed" in extension of time correspondence

The TCC enforces a £955,943 adjudication award after rejecting a contractor's late attempt to recast email exchanges as a binding settlement.

Ward v Donnellan: when both sides lie, "no order for costs" is not a free pass

The Court of Appeal overturns a no order for costs ruling, finding a judge let a dishonest claimant off too lightly.

London Borough of Camden v BW: when a single missing fact can decide a capacity case

The Court of Protection finds an expert's failure to explore one consequence, losing a placement, was enough to undermine his capacity assessment.

Griffiths v Essex County Council: EAT clarifies causation in discrimination remedy awards and sends pension loss back for recalculation

A single act of indirect disability discrimination can ground a full loss of earnings award, even where a later constructive dismissal claim was framed only...