Where to find affordable legal help (people or pets)
If you need legal help (and don’t qualify for free help), often it could leave you with no savings. Most solicitors offer 30 minutes of free advice, but you then have to pay high fees beyond that. But good legal advice is essential, if you are stuck in difficult situations.
Common situations needing legal help
- Family issues: Divorce, custody battles, or child support
- Housing/ disputes: Rental or eviction issues.
- Employment matters: Wrongful dismissal or discrimination
- Finance: Bankruptcy, debt or consumer rights
- Business: Starting a business or drafting agreements
Do you qualify for legal aid?
Legal aid is for people who cannot afford legal advice, and depends on income and savings. You need to complete an assessment to qualify.
Examples of legal aid are if you are risk of domestic violence, about to be made homeless or being discriminated against (or taken to court).
Non-profit legal clinics
These operate in communities, providing low-cost advice, staffed by law students or volunteer lawyers.
- Citizens Advice has offices in most towns, though often you have to make appointments.
- Law Centres have nationwide centres to help with housing and work issues. Some also help with relationships (they can’t help with Wills, personal injury or traffic offences).
- LawWorks can locate legal clinics near you, offering help for employment, housing, consumer disputes, debt and welfare rights.
- Advicelocal offers local help for benefits, work, money and housing problems.
Free legal help from volunteer barristers
Advocate is a charity that offers free legal help from volunteer barristers. They cannot provide legal help for those qualifying for legal aid, nor for deadlines less than 3 weeks away. Nor those who have insurance to cover the issues they need help with.
The site has a great list by subject to direct you to others who can help.
Volunteers to help you in court
Support Through Court has volunteers to help those representing themselves. For For civil/family cases, trained volunteers can provide emotional and practical support including filling in forms, planning what to say, settling out of court and details on where to find free legal advice.
Other places for free or low-cost help
- Children’s Legal Centre
- Action Against Medical Accidents
- Shelter (homelessness issues)
- Flows & Rights of Women
Some insurance companies, trade unions and motoring organisations may cover legal costs, so look to these first, before paying lawyers.
Low-cost online legal help
There are a few reputable companies that pay at-home lawyers to answer questions for set fees, so less expensive than big lawyer firms with swanky offices. You can review services for others:
- Lawhive offers solicitors at up to 60% cheaper with no hourly rates or hidden fees.
- Rocket Lawyer offers affordable legal documents, ideal for tenancy or employment contracts, plus prenuptian agreements and power of attorney.
- Expert Answers offers fixed price help from at-home solicitors. It has provided help for 400,000 people and has excellent reviews.
How to complain fault goods/services
Report dangerous/faulty goods or poor service to Trading Standards. This includes selling items to underage people, being scammed or pressured into buying things you didn’t want (mobility scooters etc).
Citizens Advice has good advice on how to complain, with details on alternative dispute resolution that some companies sign up to, to resolve issues without going to court.
How to complain to an ombudsman is a good page of advice with tips on help to complain about everything from train services to furniture retailers to new build sales, cars, pensions and councils. s
Free & affordable legal help for pets
Cooper & Co offers legal help for various issues (vets, kennels, custody, liability). They can also find someone to accompany you to court, in cases due to the not-well-thought-out Dangerous Dogs Act.
