Reading-based independent financial adviser, Beaufort Financial, a member of the national partnership of IFA firms, is sponsoring the Reading Legal Walk for the second year. Now in its fifth year, the Walk takes place on the 24th September, setting off from the Walkabout pub, near Friars Street, Reading at 17.30. The Walk also finishes at the Walkabout.

Reading Legal Walk is a 10km walk that aims to raise funds for legal advice agencies and Citizens’ Advice Bureaux in Reading and the Thames Valley. It is part of a series of sponsored and fund raising walks involving legal professionals, which take place in London and the South East annually. This year the walk will be led by District Judge Catherine Comiskey and District Judge Sophie Harrison and more than 150 of Reading’s legal professionals will be participating.

Chris Shaw, Managing Director of Beaufort Financial, said: Successive Governments’ austerity measures and cost cutting means that recourse to justice for those on low income is very limited. We strongly believe that access to justice should be available to all, regardless of their financial situation. This principle is at the cornerstone of the legal justice system in England and Wales. Sadly, this is not always the case.

Advice Agencies and Citizens Advice Bureaux work very hard to try to ensure that vulnerable people do have a way of accessing justice through a mixture of “Legal Aid” (publicly-funded work), funding from local authorities, charitable donations, and by using pro bono volunteers.