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Pro bono week and Norfolk Community Law Service
October 3, 2020
Once again we at bbl family law have been pleased to volunteer throughout the year for the free legal advice scheme managed by Norfolk Community Law Service. Here is their press release about this years pro bono week. This has been a challenging year for everyone, which has created more family law problems and at the same time, taken away the bones of the systems to resolve those problems. NCLS have continued their work throughout the pandemic and are needed now more than ever.
“Working closely with Norfolk Community Law Service (NCLS) staff and UEA volunteers, Norfolk solicitors contributed around 1,000 hours of free legal advice during 2019/20. The financial value of this free advice benefitting clients with no means to pay to access justice is in excess of £150,000,
Not even a pandemic has stopped the provision of Free Legal Advice when clients problems have not gone away and in many cases have got worse. Between 2nd -6th November Norfolk NCLS will be marking the 18th year of National Pro Bono Week. The week is sponsored by the Law Society, the Bar Council and the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx).
During 2019/20 NCLS helped 3,071 clients across all its free advice services that includes Debt, Immigration, Welfare Rights, Domestic Abuse and Family. NCLS Free Legal Advice clinics across Norfolk assisted 1,631 clients in 2019/20. This represents a significant increase of 15% on the previous year, accounting for almost half of all clients helped at Free Advice Clinics in the Eastern region. In addition to the record breaking number of over 65 dedicated solicitors giving their time for free we have 50 UEA Law students and 20 Community volunteers on whom we increasingly rely to support the delivery of all our services and between them they delivered over 5,500 volunteering hours.
Judi Lincoln, NCLS’s Advice & Volunteer Manager, says ‘We are so grateful to our team of local solicitors and very lucky in Norfolk to have more Legal Professionals giving their time for free than anywhere else in the Eastern region.
Follow us on twitter @Nclawservice and Facebook Norfolk Community Law Service”