JUDGES ruled yesterday that the government’s new requirement for domestic violence victims to prove their abuse before getting legal aid was legally flawed.

Rights of Women (ROW) campaigners argued that large numbers of abuse survivors were being unlawfully denied access to justice because of cuts in legal aid by Tory former justice secretary Chris Grayling.

Without legal aid, victims were being turned away “at the first hurdle” or having to represent themselves to “face their abuser in court,” ROW lawyers said.

Others go into debt to pay a solicitor or risk more danger in doing nothing at all.

“Our research has consistently shown that nearly half of women affected by domestic violence do not have the required forms of evidence to apply for family law legal aid and that more than half of those women tell us they take no legal action as a result,” said ROW director Emma Scott.

“This leaves them at risk of further violence and even death.”

Lord Justice Longmore, Lord Justice Kitchin and Lady Justice Macur ruled the Tories’ changes “invalid” because they require evidence of domestic violence to be given within a 24-month period before any application is made for legal aid.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said the judgment would be considered carefully.

“We have made it easier for victims of domestic violence to obtain legal aid by ensuring that a broader range of evidence qualifies,” he said.

“This has contributed to a 19 per cent rise in the number of grants awarded.”

But during a one-day hearing in January, ROW lawyers told judges that 40 per cent of victims still did not have the required forms of evidence.

They said the most common form of evidence available, introduced in April 2014, was a referral by a health professional to a victim support organisation.

Labour shadow legal aid minister Lord Bach branded the mandatory evidence requirement unfair, saying: “The public would be horrified to know that thousands of domestic abuse sufferers could have been denied access to justice and some will have been forced to stay with abusive partners because of the government’s actions.”