Brixton Advice Centre’s Online Clinic is a virtual legal advice clinic. Qualifying users can fill in a form setting out their legal question and one of our volunteer lawyers will respond

We will typically provide you with a short one-off piece of legal advice e.g. a 20 minute telephone or Skype/Zoom call, and a written summary of the advice you were given along with recommendations for any next steps you should take

The purpose of the Clinic is to increase access to expert legal advice and information to those who cannot afford it. There is no charge for using our service. Click here if you are interested in joining the team and would like more information

Please note, this service is very popular and is provided by volunteer lawyers so can take us up to 21 days for us to be able to respond. If your matter is more urgent than that you may instead choose to ring our advice line: https://brixtonadvice.org.uk/for-advice/

After one of our lawyers contacts you for further information or to set up a suitable time to discuss your query, you will have 10 days to respond before the query will be closed

User agreement

By submitting a query to the Clinic you confirm that you:

• have a low income and are not able to pay for legal support, and
• have not already received legal advice elsewhere, and
• your matter is not urgent, and
• are not asking for advice on an area we cannot help with (see below)
• you are an adult

If you do not meet these criteria we will not be able to help you. There are other sources of legal assistance you could approach, such as those on our home page or through the Law Society’s Find a Solicitor portal

What we can and cannot do

We are only able to provide advice to individuals on personal matters, such as an issue with your family or your employment status, problems with your landlord. We are not regulated to provide advice in certain areas. This means:

• We cannot provide advice to businesses or in respect of business dealings
• We cannot provide financial advice, which includes investment advice, trusts, advice related to the sale or purchase of property or other assets
• We cannot provide immigration advice.

We rely on a team of volunteer lawyers who are volunteering their time so we typically respond within fourteen days but may occasionally be longer depending on how busy the service is. This is a developing service and is subject to change. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to deal with every question submitted to the Clinic. If we cannot help you, we will still let you know

The advice we provide is one-off advice only. The volunteer lawyer will not be acting for you and will not represent you. They will not file any papers on your behalf or contact any third parties for you. They will not be able to get into protracted correspondence with you

Confidentiality

We have a strict duty of confidentiality. However, you should know that the law could, under certain circumstances, require us to disclose what you tell us; for example, if you say you are going to hurt yourself or someone else, or you say that you or someone you know is abusing a child, the law may require us to tell someone

Your data

For a limited time, we keep records of:

• What kind of legal problem you had
• What the lawyer told you
• Which area of Lambeth you live in
• Responses to any demographic or other voluntary status questions
• All other information you give us

You can see full details of your rights regarding the records we keep here

Submit a question to the Clinic

Click here to submit a question to the Clinic

The Clinic is an extension of our evening pro bono advice clinic. It came about in the early days of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic to allow our volunteer legal professionals to continue helping Lambeth residents with the legal issues affecting their lives. As far as we are aware, it was the first virtual pro bono legal advice clinic to open directly to members of the public in the UK

We are extremely grateful to the Community Justice Fund, London Community Response Fund, Trust for London and Walcot Foundation for supporting the initial development and infrastructure costs of the Clinic. We are now seeking ongoing funding so we are able to continue providing this important service. If you want to support us and help us continue providing expert legal advice to people in need you can make a small donation or contact us through our Contact Form

Thank you to our lawyers, without them none of this would be possible

                                               

 

    

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