Community Legal Advice
Community Legal Advice is a free and confidential legal service for the general public, paid for by legal aid. It is completely separate from the council, and is funded nationally by the Legal Services Commission and partnerships with independent advice agencies and solicitors.
On the Community Legal Advice website you can check if you are likely to be eligible for legal aid, and find a legal advisor in this area.
» More about Community Legal Advice
» More about Legal Aid Eligibility Calculator
» Find a local legal advisor
Consumer Support Network
Consumer advice agencies are working together as a group to develop a network plan to ensure that good quality consumer advice is accessible by the whole community. The Consumer Support Networks (CSNs) initiative, encourages consumer advice providers to join-up their services and provide consumers, wherever they live, with reliable, timely and quality assured advice.
Consumer advice needs to reflect today's complex and fast-changing marketplace. It must take account of developments such as the growth of internet shopping and the often complicated ways that goods and services are sold. We would expect advice available to cover:
- what to look out for when buying goods and services
- consumers' rights and obligations when buying goods and services
- how to obtain redress when things go wrong
- Consumer Support Networks and the Community Legal Service are complementary initiatives
Community Legal Service Quality Mark
An important principle of the Community Legal Service is that of simple referral to the right part of the network. If the first organisation you contact cannot help, they should be able to refer to another organisation that can. Community Legal Service Partnerships will ensure that advice providers in their area take part in a referral network and strongly encourage providers to apply for the Quality Mark.
One of the ways to improve access to, and delivery of legal and advice services in the community is by setting up and running referral networks. Effective referral is also one of the requirements of the CLS Quality Mark. We want people to recognise a certain standard of legal information and help.
When you see an organisation that displays the CLS logo, you know that organisation meets certain quality standards. If a Community Legal Service provider is unable to deal with all aspects of your problem, it can refer clients to another Quality Marked organisation.
For more information on the Community Legal Service Quality Mark see the Legal Services Commission website.
Contact us
Please note that the Council does not provide the above services. But if you have any comments about the information given on this page, please contact:
David Drury
Performance and Service Improvement
Waltham
Forest Town Hall
Forest Road
London
E17 4JF
Tel 020 8496 4734
Fax 020
8523 4786
