Inadequate levels of legal aid funding for inquests mean too many grieving families have to attend coroner’s court without representation, lawyers have warned.

Amanda Stevens, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), criticised government proposals contained in a consultation, which closed last week, aimed at reforming the coroners’ system. She said the plans failed to address the fact that so few bereaved families received legal aid to fund representation.

Stevens claimed only 21% of families who applied for legal aid in 2005/06 received it and many were not aware of their right to representation, despite the fact that witnesses attending court to explain the cause of death have a legal team paid for by insurance companies.

‘The government has made a good start trying to overhaul the outdated coroners’ system, but unless it addresses the funding issues too, it’s just high-minded ideas and ethics without enforceability,’ said Stevens.

Deborah Coles, co-director at Inquest, an organisation that supports bereaved people, said: ‘All bereaved people have ever asked for is equality of arms. The lack of public funding is at its most acute when families are up against the might of the state. It’s an important human rights issue. Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights requires families to be able to participate effectively in the investigation and inquest process and it’s unreasonable to expect them to pay for their own representation.’

A spokesman for the Legal Services Commission (LSC) said it was important to support families in the inquest process but there would inevitably be restrictions on which cases it could support. He said that of the 160 applications for representation made in 2007/08, some 58% received funding.

‘The LSC believes that in the great majority of inquests the coroner can ensure that the investigation will be effective, so it is only in exceptional cases that funding criteria are satisfied,’ he said.

Russell Wallman, Law Society director of government relations, said: ‘We share APIL’s concerns about the lack of equality of arms in inquests and believe that the issue of ensuring that bereaved relatives have appropriate access to justice is important.’