NEW FREE LEGAL ADVICE
SERVICE FOR WEST SUSSEX
Free access to a full range of legal services is now on
offer from your local Advice Centre of West Sussex Citizens Advice
Bureaux thanks to the launch of a new service in partnership with
SHELTER. Together they form the Community Legal Advice Service (CLAs)
for West Sussex.
Every year over forty four thousand people consult the
CAB in West Sussex on a wide range of topics including debt, housing,
welfare benefits, employment, consumer problems and family issues.
One of our clients, Paul, approached his local bureau
last April. He told us without help from the CAB my partner and I
would be homeless because we were in so much debt. The debts built
up because he had given up work to become the carer for his partner who
has Parkinsons disease. The couple had £19,000 of non priority debts and
they were using a debt management company to assist them. They also had
a pending magistrates hearing for £15,000 owed to the Child Support
Agency and they were in arrears with their mortgage.
Paul is full of praise for the CAB adviser who took up
his case. The lady we dealt with was wonderful, it brings a lump to
my throat just thinking about what she has done for us. She was kind and
sympathetic; nothing was too much trouble. The adviser helped to
arrange an agreement with the Child Support Agency to write off Pauls
debt and stop all court action. She made agreements with the non
priority debts to either write them off or accept repayments of £1 per
month and freeze interest. Paul took up her recommendation to sign up
for the Mortgage Rescue Scheme.
Paul and his partner can now remain in their own home
and ultimately, subject to a bankruptcy application, they will be debt
free. He is greatly relieved its a huge weight lifted off our minds
he said we can now live in our own house.
The new West Sussex Community Legal Advice Service
will able to offer clients who qualify for legal aid, a full range of
legal help, including access to family law solicitors. Sam Glover is a
volunteer adviser at the Bognor Regis Advice Centre. Sam says At the
moment, if clients need legal advice we can only give them a list of
local solicitors but, with the new service, we will be able offer them
time with a solicitor who works in the bureau. She adds
We aim to make the process of consulting a solicitor
less daunting and free of charge.
If you would like help from the West Sussex Citizens
Advice Bureaux you can call us on 08444 771171, which is our Advice
Line. We have offices in Lancing, Shoreham, Worthing, Bognor, Chichester,
Littlehampton, Burgess Hill, Crawley, East Grinstead, Haywards Heath and
Horsham.
EDITORS NOTES
For details contact Claire Armstrong, CLAs Manager on
[email protected]
The West Sussex Community Legal Advice Service is run
by the Consortium of West Sussex Citizens Advice Bureaux, working with
Shelter, to provide information and advice for citizens of West Sussex.
We are staffed by volunteers, paid specialist staff and solicitors
specialising in Family and Housing Law. All volunteer advisers are
trained to a nationally recognised standard. We are a registered charity
and we offer free, impartial, independent and confidential advice. We
will assist any person, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation,
ethnicity, religion or disability.
The service is funded by the Legal Services
Commission, West Sussex County Council, Adur District Council, Arun
District Council, Chichester District Council, Crawley Borough Council,
Horsham District Council, Mid-Sussex District Council and Worthing
Borough Council. |
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