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Legal Aid and Legal Help

The system changes over time, and individual cases are always unique – if you need to know how the legal aid system relates to your own circumstances, please contact a lawyer or the citizen’s advice bureaux.

Legal aid is a contribution made by the state to eligible individuals for legal costs. Legal aid can help pay for legal advice or undertakings for people who can’t afford it and can can cover all or part of legal costs.

Whether you are eligible to receive legal aid will depend on a number of issues, such as the type of legal problem involved; your financial circumstances – how much income or capital you have; and whether you have a reasonable chance of winning your case.

The kinds of situations when you might need help include:

• housing law, for example, if you’re in arrears and your landlord wants to evict you
• consumer law, for example, if you’ve bought faulty goods
• court procedures, for example, if someone is taking you to court because you owe them money
• family law such as financial support after marriage or disputes about children. You could also get advice about undefended divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership
• the buying and selling of your home, but only if this is needed to carry out a court order or if it’s the result of a divorce, legal separation or dissolved civil partnership
• a discrimination case, where you are treated unfairly because of sex, race, religion, disability or sexuality. Age discrimination is also against the law in employment cases.
• an adoption, but only if there’s a dispute about adoption
• how to prepare for a tribunal hearing, for example, an employment tribunal in an unfair dismissal case or a unified appeal tribunal in a benefits appeals case. Legal help doesn’t cover representation at the tribunal itself
• medical negligence cases

• personal injury cases, but only when the injury is the result of an assault or deliberate abuse.

A solicitor / legal advisor can help you prepare a case to go to court, give you general advice on any legal problems, writing letters, negotiating, getting a barrister’s opinion and preparing Paperwork.

See also the FrankandHonest.com ‘How do you apply for Legal Aid?’ page.

Links and contact details

Name: Citizens Advice Bureau
Web: www.citizensadvice.org.uk
Info: Citizens Advice Bureaux provide free, confidential and independent advice from over 3,000 locations including in bureaux, GP surgeries, hospitals, colleges, prisons and courts.

Name: Legal Services Commission
Web: www.legalservices.gov.uk
Tel: 0845 608 7070 (English) 0845 609 9989 (Welsh)
Email: cardiff@legalservices.gov.uk
The Legal Services Commission (LSC) looks after legal aid in England and Wales. We also make sure that people get the information, advice and legal help they need to deal with a wide range of problems.

Name: Community Legal Advice
Web: www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk
Tel: 0845 345 4345
Email:
Info: Community Legal Advice is a free and confidential advice service paid for by legal aid.

Name: Direct Gov
Web: www.direct.gov.uk
Info: Directgov is the website of the UK government. It provides information and online services for the public all in one place.

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