Getting ready for Arag Day in support of the Bristol Law Centre

Authored by ARAG

Like many companies, selecting our charity of the year is a careful decision that typically results in ARAG supporting a charity that is both local and close to our hearts. This year, however, we’ve had an additional consideration, as we’re participating in a global ARAG initiative to support organisations that extend access to justice.

The charity that we’ve been working with this year is Bristol Law Centre, which provides free legal advice and even representation in court to disadvantaged people, not just in Bristol but throughout the South West of England.

Law Centres are a vital but dwindling resource to communities throughout the country. Over the past decade, more than half the Law Centres and other not-for-profit sources of legal advice in England and Wales have closed, after successive cuts to their funding. As a result, Bristol Law Centre also has to serve people in Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall.

The Law Centre doesn’t have the resources to offer advice on every area of law, so its work is focused on the kind of legal problems that people often desperately need but cannot afford to fund themselves, including housing, employment, discrimination, mental health, asylum, family and disability benefits appeals.

As well as undertaking a variety of fundraising initiatives to provide some much-needed financial help, we’re also offering some practical support with things like raising awareness of the Law Centre and its work, and training opportunities for Law Centre staff.

September 29 is ARAG DAY, when the ARAG companies in all 19 countries will be working especially hard with their chosen charities, to draw attention to the cause of extending access to justice. So, next week, we’ll be boosting Bristol Law Centre’s capacity to provide advice and our staff will be taking on a physical challenge to raise more funds.

The ARAG Group has been focused on access to justice since its very inception, more than eighty years ago. But we’re aware that our products, as affordable as they may be, cannot reach and help everyone in society. Often those with the most acute legal needs are those least likely to have access to an insurance product like legal protection.

There are so many charities in Bristol worthy of our time and support, but none with objectives as closely aligned to ARAG’s founding principle of making the justice system accessible to everyone in society.

We hope that this shared purpose will enable us to help even more people through our continuing partnership with the wonderful team at Bristol Law Centre.