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Heroines for justice

Justice for All Heroines with Judge Gooding Bureaux across England and Wales supported the June 3rd Day of Action for free legal advice, co-ordinated by the Justice for All campaign. We hear David Gooding, District Manager at Bedworth, Rugby & Nuneaton CAB (BRANCAB) on his experience of being action hero for justice!

"The bureau has been involved in the Justice for All campaign since early 2011, when we arranged a meeting with all 3 MPs for our area in Westminster to brief them about the impact that multiple cuts to funding would have on our bureau and other advice giving organisations in Warwickshire.  We have also raised awareness of these issues through our local papers and BBC  Coventry & Warwickshire radio.

When we heard about the Day of Action, we wanted get involved and decided to work with Legal Advice Warwickshire, our partnership of advice agencies and solicitors in the area.

To raise awareness of the issues with the public and gather support, we arranged to have stands in shopping centres in Nuneaton and Rugby giving out leaflets and gathering signatures on a petition supporting our campaign. Shopping centres are great as not only are there lots of people around but, importantly, we could get a table there for free.

Ex MP Bill Olner signs to support campaignOur action Heroines for Justice worked well to attract the attention of passers-by in Nuneaton, as one of our staff and a daughter and friend of another agreed to dress up and I opted for a judge’s costume to finish off our gang.  

Staff and volunteers from the CAB and our partner agencies all chipped in, giving up their time to do 2 hour stints on the stand throughout the day.  Asking people to sign our petition, we were all struck by how many people have a negative view of legal aid, and aren’t aware that it pays for specialist advice on serious but everyday social welfare law problems such as welfare benefits, employment, housing and debt, that you get from charities like our CAB. The team were amazing and weren’t shy in explaining to people what the impact of legal aid cuts could be on them and their families. It reminded me why I love working with my bureau’s fantastic team, they are such a versatile lot! In the end, we got over 1000 signatures in seven hours.

Our Day of Action got a lot of good press attention – with items in the local papers and on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire radio who arranged a live interview from the shopping centre for their morning chat show. Local MP, Dan Byles, came down to listen to our concerns, and Bill Olner,  who retired as MP for Nuneaton at the last election visited our stall and pledged his support for the campaign.

It was a long day for me what with setting up the stalls, dashing between Rugby and Nuneaton for press photo shoots, but didn’t take that much organisation in advance and was well worth it to be a part of the Day of Action. This is far from the end of the campaign, as proposals to remove legal aid funding from important areas are going forward.  We have to keep on raising our concerns with our community, local council and MPs or we risk sleepwalking into removing a service that provides vital help – my worry is people won’t realise it’s gone until they desperately need it, only to find the services they need are no longer there."

Watch a short video of our Day of Action.

To find out more about Justice for All and the Day of Action across England and Wales visit www.justice-for-all.org.uk.