Richmond Legal Advice Service

About our service

How RLAS provides its service

This page provides information on how Richmond Legal Advice Service (RLAS) sees and helps clients:

RLAS is open each Wednesday between 8pm to 9pm in Richmond, and the first Tuesday in each month in Mortlake (for dates when RLAS is closed)
it is not necessary to telephone ahead or make an appointment
clients are normally (but not always) seen in order of arrival
RLAS aim is that each client is seen for between 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the problem and the number of other clients who are waiting
if necessary or appropriate, we may ask clients to come to another session to obtain further advice or assistance or refer the client elsewhere to obtain advice and assistance

How to find RLAS

For details on our location, how to reach us, how to access/use the premises RLAS uses and maps go to the Our Location page

Helping us to help you

Before coming to a RLAS advice session, the following are some of the things a client can do to maximise the benefit they will get at an advice session:

bringing all relevant papers (and sorting them in a logical order)
if the matter is complex or there are a lot of facts, the client trying to summarise the main points, or the particular issue that legal advice and assistance is required on (as far as it is possible to do so)
allow the volunteer adviser to guide and control the interview and decide what the relevant documents are and what information needs to be provided
complete our client contact form before attending an advice session. Which is available in two versions: A version which can be printed to paper and completed by hand or a version which completed on screen and then printed to paper

Some limitations

Because of the limited time available it may mean that an adviser cannot give a definitive view on a client’s problem.

If the problem is legally complex or there are a lot of facts or papers to go through then sometimes all the adviser we can do at that session is to try to give a “commonsense” answer pointers or refer the client on.

No legal adviser can hope to be an expert or to have detailed knowledge on all areas of law.

Therefore, if the client’s problem concerns an area of law which is outside the experience of the volunteers present on the night a client attends, RLAS may not be able to help at that session and the client may need to return or go to another advice agency.

Last updated: 28 March 2010