With personal debt rising, more and more people risk finding bailiffs on their doorstep. Councils, for instance, are using them increasingly to collect tax arrears. Until last month ministers intended to extend bailiffs’ powers to use force when entering a home and seizing goods to settle civil debts.

The decision of Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, not to proceed was a significant victory for the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust, a small London-based charity, which has been campaigning for tighter regulation of bailiffs and the removal of their right to use force. But according to Joanna Kennedy, its chief executive, the battle is far from won.

“These powers are contained in the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 and although ministers have said that they will not enact them, they remain on the statute book. So the Government could change its mind at any time. We’d like the provision to allow the use of force and effect forcible entry removed entirely.”

The issue will come before the Commons next month when Karen Buck, the Labour MP for Regent’s Park and Kensington North, tables a ten-minute rule bill. Even after the concession by ministers bailiffs still have a right to use force over unpaid criminal fines under the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, such as for non-payment of a TV licence or motoring offence. For the past 400 years until that Act, entry to a person’s home had to be peaceful.

“People can be absolutely terrified when bailiffs turn up,” she said. “One debtor had a fatal heart attack as he was frogmarched to a cash machine.” The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) had issued guidance for dealing with vulnerable people. “We’d like an obligation on the part of bailiffs to refer vulnerable cases back to courts or to creditors, so debtors can seek a rehearing.”

In Kennedy, ministers face a formidable adversary. Until last October when she joined the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust (Zacchaeus was tax collector who became a philanthropist), Kennedy, 58, was a high-flying commercial litigator with Collyer Bristow, the London firm. She had been voted by clients one of only five women in the top 100 lawyers who act as business advisers. Her clients included Camelot, the Arts Council and Sport England — giving her insight into funding in the non-commercial sector.

“I had been a lawyer for 30 years and I enjoyed it, but increasingly I found the amorality of the commercial legal process frustrating and I wanted to do something a bit more worthwhile. A lot of it,” she added, “was making the rich richer and, as lawyers, becoming rich yourself.”

Now on £40,000 a year, she earns a quarter of what she did. “That can be slightly frightening but you adjust. All my rich lawyer friends now pay for lunch.” But she loves the job. “I’d been looking for something in the charity sector for some time. I’ve always done charity work. I’ve met some incredible, thoughtful and committed people — earning the kind of money I earn now as opposed to the enormous salaries in my past world. And I very much enjoy the campaigning.” Under the trust chairmanship of the Reverend Paul Nicolson, that includes obtaining details of MoJ guidance to bailiffs on forcible entry. These have been withheld “for reasons of the health and safety of bailiffs”. How, Nicolson says, “can we or the magistrates’ courts tell if bailiffs are keeping the rules if the rules are kept secret?”

Under a Freedom of Information request, a version of the guidance was released, with 15 of 30 pages redacted. An appeal to the Information Commissioner led to re-issued guidance last autumn with different redactions — including some parts previously seen. “We’ve written on the advice of Heather Rogers, QC, via the Bar Pro Bono Unit, to the Information Commissioner,” she says. Judicial review may follow.

Meanwhile, Kennedy has other work, including recruiting and training volunteers to act as unpaid advisers to help people who have to appear in court. “Lawyers could do worse, at a time of recession, than look at the charity sector,” she says. “They tend just to look for a consultancy at another firm. It’s a failure of imagination as to what else they could do.”

Explore Law

• Columnists

• Law Panel

• Law Reports

• Student Law

Times Recommends

• BGC 'set aside £40m to lure Tullett brokers'
• Legal aid review to ensure value
• Fears as 21 magistrates' courts face closure