Most Australians assume if they get embroiled in a serious problem and can't afford a lawyer the state will provide one for them. They're mostly wrong. Legal aid funding is now so scarce that even most of those living below the poverty line are not eligible.

That's why, at the start of Law Week, the legal profession is today launching the Legal Aid Matters campaign, which will be marked by rallies of lawyers across the country. Every year our courts are filling with more people who have been forced to represent themselves. It puts huge stress on the individual, clogs up the court system and impedes justice. More worrying still are the cases in which people simply opt to ignore their legal issue until, generally, it gets much worse.

Many Australians are left to fend for themselves in court due to the restrictions on who is eligible for legal aid. Credit:Fairfax

Money has been hemorrhaging from the system since 1997 when the federal government decided it would only directly fund legal aid services for Commonwealth law matters.

The states have not been able to pick up the slack, meaning the problem has been deepening for two decades. Today, Australia's legal aid funding per capita is half that of comparable countries like the UK which, it should be remembered, has recently been through harsh austerity measures.