Student-led Legal Advice Clinic expands to offer Personal Injury support
The student-led Legal Advice Clinic at the University of Huddersfield has expanded to offer support for personal injury matters for the first time.
The Clinic, which is based on Campus in the Oastler Building, offers free assistance to local people who would otherwise have no access to legal help.
It also allows students in the Law School to gain hands-on legal experience while being supported by a qualified team of academic staff.
The Clinic partners with a number of local solicitor firms that offer regular free solicitor drop-in sessions, which are observed by the University’s law students.
Find out more about studying Law at Huddersfield
From October, the Clinic began offering specialist Personal Injury appointments, partnering with solicitors firm Hodge, Jones and Allen, who supervise the student advisors during the consultation.
It means that the Legal Advice Clinic, which has been running since 2013, now covers the following areas of law: Family; Contract; Landlord & Tenant; Wills & Probate; Employment; Property; and Civil Litigation & Personal Injury.
Gemma Manning, Director of the Legal Advice Clinic, and Senior Lecturer in the Law School at the University of Huddersfield, commented: “We have student advisor appointments, which involve two or three University students working under the supervision of a member of the academic staff. All the staff members who work in the Legal Advice Clinic formerly practised as solicitors.
“The student advisers are given a brief overview provided by the client about the legal problem. Further to this, they interview clients to collect detailed information about the case. The students then conduct research into the legal issues and prepare a full written letter of advice for the client, under the supervision of staff.
“Another very important service offered is our free solicitor sessions, every Wednesday or Thursday afternoon. We have solicitors with different areas of law each week, and those solicitors give free half-hour advice sessions to members of the community. The students’ role would be to observe those sessions and learn legal skills from the solicitors.”
She added: “We would encourage people from the local community, who have a legal issue and are suffering as a result of it, to come along and seek our advice, which is available for free at the Legal Advice Clinic.”
The solicitors’ firms that partner with the Legal Advice Clinic are Jordans; Ramsdens; Ison Harrison; Wilkinson Woodward, Chadwick Lawrence, Switalskis; Eaton Smith; Ridley & Hall, Schofield Sweeney, Williams & Co; Bridge Law; and Hodge, Jones and Allen.
A three-day training programme was held recently for the 37 new student advisors from the University’s Law School. Academics and the partner solicitors shared their time, expertise and knowledge, to ensure the student advisors have the skills needed to support clients at the Clinic.
Find out more about the Legal Advice Clinic via the dedicated webpage.