What is a Law Centre?

A law centre is…

A law centre is an organisation that employs qualified practising lawyers who are able to provide specialist level legal advice but who can also undertake reserved legal activities (as regulated under the Legal Services Act 2007).  This means that law centre solicitors can issue and conduct legal proceedings for clients and can conduct advocacy in courts and other tribunals.

A law centre, employing solicitors, will be able to tender for and be awarded legal aid contracts. This means that we will be able to provide legal support to people who otherwise would not be able to afford it.

More than that, a law centre is a vehicle for using the law to create change. Change for individuals, change for communities and change for society as a whole.  Law centres are exciting and innovative places to work and volunteer and have a huge beneficial impact on society.  A law centre:

1. Provides high quality specialist legal advice and representation to those who would otherwise be denied access to justice, with a view to tacking poverty and inequality;
2. Conducts strategic litigation which might change the law or highlight issues which will lead to a discussion and change;
3. Uses its knowledge, expertise and data to influence policy makers to make better decisions and to create fairer, more just and equal, policies and procedures;
4. Educates people about their rights and duties and helping them address issues before they become problems, or at least recognising when they have become a problem and what help might be available.

Of course, providing legal advice and representation to individuals which can literally change their quality of life is a law centre’s principal function.  Inequality has never seemed so stark and we need strong law centres as part of the way to treat and heal those issues.