One of the biggest impacts from the cuts has been on the availability of family law advice. For this legal aid has mostly been abolished, except for victims of domestic abuse.

Legal aid helps with the costs of advice for people who cannot afford it. To qualify, individuals need to earn less than £23,000 a year for help with cases in the lower courts.

In 2017/2018, around 140,000 people received legal aid, compared to 785,000 in 2010 to 2011.

Heather Reilly, a solicitor at Wootton Bassett firm Bevirs Law said: “Fewer and fewer firms offer legal aid in private family law. There are exceptions, for example if you can produce hard evidence that you have been the victim of domestic violence. However, the reality is that many victims of abuse suffer in silence, without ever reporting the abuse to the police, social services or their GP.

“The reduced scope for legal aid has resulted in the courts being full to the brim of unrepresented parties.

“Cases where one or both parties are unrepresented are invariably more difficult to resolve. Divorcing parties and separated parents are forced to go it alone in a legal system that solicitors and barristers spend years studying and training to navigate.

“It must be extremely daunting for a litigant in person to be up against a highly trained professional in court.

“In the worst case scenario, a victim of abuse who cannot afford representation may have to face their abuser in court and be crossed examined directly by them.”