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Most of us need legal help at some point in our lives, whether it’s to sort out a problem with benefits, help you write a will, or sell your home. It’s a good idea to know a little about the process, and the best way to find help.
You can get free legal advice from an advice agency on issues like benefits, housing, consumer rights, problems at work and community care.
Advice centres include local Age UKs, Citizens Advice Bureaux, law centres and independent advice agencies. Some can give you initial advice, while others can help with complex cases and even represent you in a court of tribunal.
Advice centres aren’t the only place to get free advice.
Trade unions: if you’re a member of a trade union, you may be able to get free legal advice through them, not just about employment-related issues. Contact them to find out what they offer.
Financial products: Some bank accounts, insurance policies and other products offer access to legal advice. Check the terms and conditions of any you hold to see whether you qualify.
Citizens Advice Consumer Service: For help with problems with consumer goods or services, call them on 08454 04 05 06.
Sometimes an advice agency or free service won’t be able to help you, and you’ll need to get advice from a private solicitor. You may need help making a will, setting up a lasting power of attorney, buying or selling a house, or getting a divorce.
Different solicitors specialise in different areas of law, such as criminal, divorce or employment. Find a solicitor who specialises in dealing with your issue.
You can search for a solicitor by contacting the Law Society. They won’t recommend a particular solicitor, so if you have several options, call a few to compare the service they offer.
Download the guide Help with legal advice (PDF 788 KB)
Download the factsheet Getting legal advice (PDF 292 KB)
Set your location to see what Age UK offers in your local area.
An information guide with more in-depth advice about how to get the most appropriate legal advice and what to expect from a legal adviser.
Downloads
A download is a document (like a research report, a leaflet, or an application form) that can be transferred from our website to your computer. You can download a file, view it on your screen, print it, or save it to your computer.
PDF stands for ‘portable document format’.
Most downloads on this website are PDFs. We use this format to ensure that the document looks the same on everyone’s computer (website pages, by contrast, appear differently depending on how people have set their computer up).
Computers use a program called Adobe Acrobat Reader to download PDFs. If you try clicking on a link to download a PDF and it doesn’t work, you will need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader onto your computer.
The process is quite straightforward and is free.
PDFs cannot be changed. If you need to be able to type into a downloaded document (for example, if we are offering a letter template that you need to put your name on) we will provide it as a Microsoft Word document rather than a PDF. You can then download it, type into it and save it to your computer.
Downloads will open on your computer in a new browser window.
Inside this window (below all your web browser menus), there will be a toolbar with options for you to print or save the document.
Close the browser window to return to the Age UK website.
We have made every effort to make our PDFs accessible to screen readers. Here is an overview of your accessibility options available in Acrobat Reader. Please ensure that you have downloaded the latest version of Acrobat Reader from the Adobe Reader website to ensure that they are included in your version of the programme.
You can use Adobe Reader to read a PDF out loud with the following shortcut keys:
You can also convert a PDF into a web page by following these steps:
You can convert a PDF document into a text file for use with other software and hardware such as Braille printers by opening the PDF and choosing ‘Save as text’ from the File menu.
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