' Only the very rich, the very poor, or the masochist can think about going to law today.' Justice is a human right. But what do you do if you have a strong legal case and can't afford to take it to court? Just going to court can be so expensive these days that, in a number of civil disputes, the only people who have a real chance of justice are the very rich. Or the very poor; they at least qualify for legal aid - the state fund that was introduced some 30 years ago to give everyone who needed it a chance to take a case to court. But legal aid has not kept pace with the times. Now, far from covering everyone in need, in civil cases it covers only a quarter of the families in the land. This Man Alive Report meets people who have good cases but can't afford to try for justice, meets some of the lawyers they can't afford, hears about methods that can cut round the full costs of a legal action and considers how we could reform our system.