Legal Advice Clinic

The Legal Advice Clinic provides free legal advice to the local community and to certain specific sectors.

In light of the significant reduction in legal aid, access to justice is being eroded. Many people find themselves in situations where they need legal advice but cannot access it. This is usually because they cannot afford to pay for it. Clinics like ours are essential to bridge the gap.

We are staffed by the University's law students, with supervision and support from lecturers, in house qualified solicitors and local Solicitors and Barristers. We also provide invaluable practical experience to law students who are studying at University of Staffordshire.

We aim to provide a valuable service to the local community, providing access to justice in areas of law where it is lacking, balancing that service with also providing clinical legal education to the University’s students, preparing them for a career in law or industry. We provide the University’s students with a set of transferable skills that will be invaluable to them as they progress into the working world.

Our services

We provide free legal advice during term time to:

• The general public in Stoke and Stafford
• Officers and staff of prisons and the military
• Patients, visitors and staff at hospitals
• MP’s
• YMCA
• Patients and relatives referred from Macmillan Cancer Support

We can provide advice on the following areas of law:

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

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

What to expect

At your meeting, two law students will interview you, with a supervisor also in attendance. These meetings usually take around 30 minutes.

Please note, we cannot provide advice at your first meeting. We will take full instructions during the interview. If we can assist you, we will provide you with a written letter of advice within 14 days. We cannot 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 at Tribunals.

Book an appointment

Our clinics take place virtually, to make an appointment either call or email leaving your contact details.

• Call us on 01782 294800

• Email us at sulac@staffs.ac.uk

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 Clinic 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 Clinic’s data protection policy.
As the  Legal Advice Clinic 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.