Private funding, and other advice agencies

• Anyone who can afford it, can pay for a solicitor and/or a barrister. solicitors have offices in most towns however, many solicitors specialize in certain areas of work, so if a person has an unusual problem, they will need to do some research into finding the correct firm to help with their problem.
• Solicitors charge an hourly fee, and it can be expensive to obtain legal advice. a solicitor will likely not be able to give a fixed fee for a case as it will depend on how many hours will be spent on the case, how easy it is to obtain evidence, whether a settlement can be reached or if the case has to go to trial and if a specialist barrister will be needed.
• A solicitor can enter into a written contract called a conditional fee agreement (CFA) with their client in many types of civil cases. These are particularly used in personal injury claim,s but they cannot be used in family or criminal cases:

  • A CFA ensures that the client only pays if the solicitor wins the case for the client
  • CFAs place caps on what the solicitor can charge
  • if the case is lost, the solicitor can't claim costs so they only agree to CFAs if the case has a minimum 75% success rate.
• Conditional fee agreements will usually contain a 'success fee' clause. this is the added fee that a solicitor becomes entitled to under a CFA if the case is a success. the amount of the success fee is usually determined by the complexity and risk of the claim and is a percentage of the compensation recovered. if the client wins the case, they cannot claim for the success fee from the losr in addition to their costs.
• Due to the rule in civil cases that the loser pays the winner's legal costs, it will be a term of the conditional fee agreement that the client takes out an insurance policy to cover the costs of the other party should the claim be lost.
• The Citizens ' Advice bureau is a charitable organisation and there are bureaux in many towns and cities across the country. the yare staffed by full-time employees and trained volunteers who advise on a range of issues. The main areas of advice are for debt, consumer issues, claiming welfare benefits, housing problems and employment matters.
• Many citizen's advice offices have arrangements with local solicitors who offer clinics to give advice on purely legal issues. the solicitors are likely to offer a cheap or free first advice session.
• Law centres offer free, non-means tested advice to people living in the area and advice and representation to areas where there are no or few solicitors.
• Law centres are funded by central or local government but have found It difficult to gain enough funding, despite covering a need
• Most law centres will have a qualfieid solcitor who will be working full time, but is supported by volunteers.
• Volunteer barristers staff a bar pro bono unit in London which gives free legal advice on a range of legal issues to members of the public who cannot afford legal fees and who do not qualify for CLA. The unit may also represent a member of the public in civil legal proceedings.
• The free representation unit, FRU, is based in London and Nottingham. it gives free advice and legal representation in social security and employment tribunals. they help members of the public who cannot afford lawyers and are not eligible for legal aid.
• The work of the free representation unit is carried out by volunteers who are often law students and legal professionals in the early stages of their careers. FRU's representatives are trained and supervised by leal officers. Additionally, many universities around the country encourage their law students to offer free legal advice to members of the public in their area.
• Many inusrance policies include cover for help with legal fees and advice, and if necessary taking a case to court- for example:

  • Vehicle insurance covers the insured for advice on claims arising from road accidents.
  • a house insurance policy will cover advice and assistance if a visitor is injured on the premises.
• There are specialised insurance policies that can be bought to cover legal costs:

  • Before the event policies- these are taken out where there is no known claim at the time of the purchase.
  • after the event policies- these are required when a conditional fee agreement has been entered into. this policy covers the lawyer's fees and the winner's legal costs if the claim is lost.
• Many charities offer some form of free specialist advice in their area of work. they will employ either trained advisers or volunteers to provide initial advice and assistance to those who contact them
• The charity called Gingerbread offers advice on issues that may impact a single or shared parent. This can include matters of child maintenance, contact with children after a family breakdown, employment issues, education, welfare benefits, housing and debt
• The charity called Shelter offers local teams to provide face - to - face advice, telephone helplines, and online chats for free advice on a range of housing issues such as homelessness, eviction, tenancy agreements, repairs, and housing benefits.