free legal advice myth

mandragora_2

Find yourself a good local solicitor - ring them and see if they will offer you a free first half hour or initial consultation. Before you go along, get all the relevant information to hand, work out the key questions you need the answers to and then use every second of that time as efficiently as possible. I've done this before, had great advice, and from that handled almost everything myself. In the end, we spent about £200 at the solicitors, did everything else ourselves and came away with a really good outcome - one that more than repaid the £200 many times over.

TBagpuss

there have been massive cuts of legal aid. Solicitors, barristers and Judges fought tooth an nail *against* those cuts (despite the fact that legal aid has for years been lagging behind market rates so that lawyers are much better rewarded for avoiding legal aid) The legal aid cuts meant that many not-for-profit organisations saw they budgets disappear almost over night so many law clinics etc have had to close, or to go from providing professional advise to relying on volunteers.
CABs are staffed by volunteers. in the past, the CAB would employ solicitors who could provide advice under legal aid - most of them can no longer do so and cannot afford to pay the wages of solicitors with no income from legal aid to match this.

You are right to be angry, but don't be fooled into thinking that the legal profession wanted or supported this.

You will need to poay for a solicitor if you want proper legal advice - and it is very very rare for a lawyer to be able to give you 100% cast iron certianty as to what will happen as court's do have discretion in most cases.

Depending on what type of order you have recevied you may be able to get some slightly more specific advice by posting in more detail - for instance, if it is a Family court order, try Wikivorce, if it is a claim for money for an unpaid debt, post on the debt forum here, if it is in relation o alleged fare dodging or parking fees try the motoring threads here and so on.

many solicitors do offer free initial consultation (which may be by phone) generally they will aim to give you some general information / advice to allow you to decide whether to instruct them to help you deal with the case or not. You can get the most out of that advice by preparing carefully - for instance, if you feel that the claim is wrong, why? what evidcen do uou have?

If you are able to see a solicitor for a free initial meeting, which may only be for `15-30 minutes you can make much better use of it if you go in and are able to explain quickly what the relevant issues are:

e.g.
- do you accept that you owe the money, or any part of it?
- if you accept you owe somethign, how muchdo you think you ow, and on what basis (invoices, receipts for money already paid, proof of any agreement)
- if you don;t think you owe the money, why not? (already paid / never had a contract / work was not done / you didn't cause the damage / whatever)

mattyprice4004

It's not the Government's responsibility to fight your battles - if you're having court action taken against you, see a solicitor. That's what they're for.

Morglin

This government legal advice site do give free advice with some issues.

https://www.gov.uk/civil-legal-advice


This site is well used, and offers free legal advice, but I don't know how good it is:

http://legalbeagles.info/

Lin

Mistral001

As others have said, I cannot see how it is a myth as legal advice has never been free. unless you quality for Legal Aid. Sometimes solicitors will give some snippets of advice and not charge then and there if they think that there is a good chance that they will get your business, but if it is clear that you do not want to pay anything ever, well do not be surprised if you do not get any advice from them.

Bantex_2

Rhubarb81 wrote: »

While many claim to know the law, it's often better to get it from a professional

The term "professional" means they get paid for their services. Don't think OP wants to pay.