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Volunteering if you are a qualified lawyer

This page provides information if you wish to volunteer at Richmond Legal Advice Service (RLAS) and you are a qualified lawyer (what is meant by a “qualified” lawyer).

The information on this page provides answers to questions that are commonly asked of RLAS. RLAS receives a number of enquiries from people wanting to gain practical legal experience and encourages them.

Do I have to be a practising solicitor or barrister in order to be able to interview clients and provide advice?

No. Some of our advisers are not practising as solicitors or barristers. For example, some advisers might have child care responsibilities, or are lecturing or pursuing other activities.

When is RLAS open?

Only on Wednesday evenings between 8pm and 9pm.

How long do I need to spend at a session

Although the stated time when RLAS is open is between 8pm and 9pm in practice the following apply:

• a volunteer should normally arrive 10 to 15 minutes before 8pm as clients often start arriving before that time and will need be given client contact forms to complete;
• a session may run on until 9.30pm (approximately). If there are lot of clients or some clients have complex matters or cannot be dealt with quickly, it may not be possible to stop at 9pm

This will mean that, on average, you should expect will need to spend between 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes at each session (plus any travel time to and from the RLAS advice session location).

How often will I have to provide advice?

Volunteers are put on a rota and are normally required to attend 1 week in 4 on average.

A rota is compiled normally for a 3 month period. If a volunteer is not able to make a session then they can swap with another adviser or contact the secretary to arrange a swap.

How specialist or extensive should my legal knowledge as a volunteer be?

The experience of most volunteers is that clients normally require mostly commonsense basic advice or some very detailed but specific advice on a particular legal issue or step.

For example, if a client is involved in a consumer dispute, or have a neighbour problem, they may wish to receive advice on starting or defending court action (the steps in taking litigation, letters before action, procedure, costs and so on).

For example, a client may have received general advice from a CAB and then require more specialist help on particular point which the CAB could not answer.

Practically, if you find you cannot help the client before you, then you should refer them to another volunteer, or another advice agency or other specialist legal help, or if you wish to carry out some follow up work of your own. See next point.

What should I do if I cannot help a client?

If a client requires

• detailed, specialist, advice (which is outside of the expertise of the adviser); or
• ongoing advice and assistance (like if the client had instructed a firm of solicitors); or
• urgent action to be taken on their behalf

then RLAS is not the right organisation for them. If a volunteer has a client that falls into these categories then the client is offered the choice of coming back to another session and to see another adviser who knows more about the subject matter the client has asked for help or refer the client onto a firm of solicitors or another advice agency.

RLAS maintains

• for each volunteer the areas of law in which they specialise in;
• a list of all the firms of solicitors in the London Borough of Richmond and surrounding area who carry out legal aid work (categorised by area of law);
• a list of firms of solicitors who specialise in particular areas of law (but do not undertake legal aid).

What kind of advice or assistance do clients require?

In principle RLAS has no restrictions on what types of law it can deal with. But in practice there are some areas which rarely occur at our advice sessions. These are immigration law, social housing law, criminal law and debt advice and assistance.

Is follow-up work necessary or required?

There is not normally any follow-up work necessary. But occasionally a letter or claim may need to be drafted, etc or some legal research carried out in order to deal with a client's problem. The amount of follow up work that a volunteer wishes to do is up to to them as long as 2 important principles are kept in mind:
• RLAS aims is to provide to initial and basic legal advice; and
• RLAS is not seen as taking on or acting on behalf of a client (such as a firm of solicitors or a law centre)
If a volunteer wishes to do follow up work, all of its (and all documents/correspondence sent or received) has to be noted and then provided to RLAS.

How many clients can I expect to see at a session?

RLAS has an “open door” for clients, so it is not possible to indicate how many clients will come on any particular evening. But in practice, a volunteer should expect to see 1 to 4 clients per a session.

How many lawyers are present at an advice session

At every session there should be normally at least 2 lawyers present (plus non-qualified volunteers).

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