Press Releases pre-May 2010

The legal aid phone line, Community Legal Advice, is set to expand this summer by increasing its family law advice service and by opening longer hours.

Last year 300,000 people used the helpline for debt, housing, employment, education and welfare benefits problems. The Legal Services Commission (LSC) today committed to helping a further 25,000 people a year with family law advice services by expanding the service from July. The phone line will also extend its hours to weekday evenings and Saturday mornings.

A tender to run the new family service was launched today following a successful year long pilot. The LSC’s Executive Director for Commissioning, Hugh Barrett said; “We are asking family legal advisers to tender for the Community Legal Advice family helpline contract because our research shows that debt, housing and family problems are so often experienced together. Debt, eviction or redundancy can put strain on relationships. Equally, splitting households can cause housing or debt problems. The Community Legal Advice line, 0845 345 4 345, will soon offer free help across the full range of commonly linked problems for people who need help but can’t afford it.“

Some of the key findings from an evaluation of the pilot include:

• 3,000 calls a month were received by the phoneline from people wanting family law advice - demonstrating strong demand for family help.
• 100% of clients surveyed would recommend the service.
• 82% said the advice they received enabled them to resolve their problem.
• The pilot showed a wide geographical reach and the helpline has potential to offer access to people in very rural locations who may not easily be able to access face-to-face legal advice.
• The pilot successfully reached a diverse client base. 11% of family helpline callers described themselves as having a disability and 20% were from Black or Minority Ethnic backgrounds.

The advice line will encourage referrals to mediation, where appropriate, increasing the chance of less adversarial resolution of family disputes. If callers to the helpline prefer, they can ask to be referred to a face-to-face provider at any stage.

The LSC is investing around £7-million over three years in the Community Legal Advice family service to be rolled out from July.

Full details can be found on the LSC’s website at www.legalservices.gov.uk

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Media seeking more information can contact: Michaela Keating Tel: 020 7783 7221
Email: michaela.keating@legalservices.gov.uk 

Case Study
Mrs A had been married for 30 years to an abusive alcoholic. Mrs A was forced to move out and rent a property due to Mr A’s behaviour. Mrs A wanted to move back into her matrimonial home but Mr A’s refused to move out.

The Family Community Legal Advice Helpline helped Mrs A by writing to her husband and negotiating for him to move out of the property into sheltered accommodation.

Mrs A then got help applying for a divorce. The Family Community Legal Advice Helpline advisor drafted all the relevant court documentation, including the divorce petition.The advisor established unreasonable behaviour as grounds for the divorce and liaised with Mr A’s to secure agreement to the divorce. Finally, Mrs A’s advisers looked after all the legalities around helping Mrs A change her name so now she can make a completely fresh start.

Notes to editors
· In addition to the new family service Community Legal Advice offers free, confidential help with debt, welfare benefits, tax credits, housing, education and employment problems call on 0845 345 4 345.
· People can also text their name and ‘legalaid’ to 80010 and CLA will call back.
· The phoneline offers a translation service, available in 170 languages.
· Advice is available to people for whom British Sign Language is their first language via the website. http://www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk
· People experiencing domestic abuse are treated as emergency clients and referred directly to a face-to-face provider.