Private family law cases involve sensitive issues around the care of children. Cases are decided in formal legal hearings on the basis of detailed evidence provided by parties. However, since the passage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO) in 2011, parties in private family law cases have no automatic right to legal aid, and a growing proportion represent themselves as litigants in person.
This evaluation seeks to understand the work of CASS+ to support litigants in person in private family law cases in five courts in Devon and Cornwall (Bodmin, Exeter, Plymouth, Newton Abbot and Truro). By speaking to stakeholders from the judiciary and the courts service and looking at data collected by the service on its clients, this evaluation aims to understand the problems the service seeks to address, the way it supports its clients and the impact it is having.