Legal Advice Service

Legal Advice Service

Our Legal Advice Service includes clinics offering free advice to the local community on a wide range of legal matters. Although we cannot represent you in court proceedings, our advice could involve useful preliminary advice and signposting to others who can help.

Supervised by a qualified solicitor, our law students interview clients and provide a detailed letter of advice on their concerns.

Our aims include:

• To bridge the gap between the public and legal services
• Provide access to justice
• Offer free legal advice to those who find themselves in situations where they cannot access it
• Advise on a wide range of matters including family law, property and boundary disputes, contesting a will, tenancy agreements, employment discrimination, to name a few examples
• Educate the next generation of legal professionals by providing our students with a real-world opportunity to advise clients

“I am so pleased with the letter of advice I have received…(It is) is very thorough and detailed, and has given me a sense of direction that I couldn't afford before.” – Client 

Our services

Operating during term-time, we provide our services to:

• The general public in Stoke-on-Trent and Stafford
• Officers and staff of prisons and the military
• Patients, visitors and staff at hospitals
• MPs
• YMCA
• Patients and relatives referred from Macmillan Cancer Support

Our main areas of law include:

• Employment
• Consumer issues
• Housing
• Personal injury
• Family law

Please note, we do not deal with criminal or immigration matters or provide debt counselling. We also can’t advise you if your case involves a claim or potential claim against University of Staffordshire, its employees or students. When we cannot assist you, we may be able to refer you onto an organisation that can help.

What to expect

Step 1: Book an appointment - we’ll arrange an online meeting with you

Step 2: In your meeting, two of our students will interview you, with a qualified supervisor in attendance. It will usually take around 30 minutes

Step 3: If we can assist you, we will follow up with a written letter of advice within 14 days*

*Please note, we can’t conduct litigation or run cases for you. On rare occasions, we may be able to liaise with third parties on an informal basis. We do not represent clients in court or tribunals. 

Book an appointment

You can request an appointment with us by completing our form via the button below. Please note, our clinics take place virtually. We cannot guarantee an appointment, however, if we are able to help then someone will be in contact to arrange a date and time.  

Alternatively, you can contact us via email: legaladviceservice@staffs.ac.uk or call us on 01782 294800.

Legal notice

Please note that in some circumstances you may only have a short period of time to deal with a matter and to commence a claim at court or a tribunal. In employment cases, for example, this is usually 3 months. If you miss the deadline, you will lose the right to bring a claim. We do not guarantee that we will be able to assist you, so if you need urgent legal advice or are unsure of any deadlines you should contact another organisation for assistance in the meantime.

We receive many enquiries so will not automatically be able to respond to you as contact will only be made with those clients that we may be able to help. If you do not hear from us within three working days of making an enquiry, you should seek advice elsewhere.

As a client, you will be expected to sign an Information for Clients form which sets out, in detail, the service that you can expect from us and other important points. You will be asked to sign a copy of the form at the start of your meeting with the student advisors.

The Legal Advice Service is a member of the Solicitors Pro Bono Group, trading as Lawworks and the Lawworks Clinic Network. Lawworks address is: 48 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1JF. All advice is provided by us and is insured.

All information provided by you is treated in the strictest confidence and subject to the Legal Advice Service’s data protection policy.
As the Legal Advice Service uses students to provide advice, it only operates for limited periods of the year, generally during the student’s term-time when they do not have assessments.