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Get legal advice

The Open Justice Law Clinic is a free online legal advice clinic led by law students under the supervision of qualified solicitors.

The Clinic is currently closed. If you need support in the meantime please contact Citizens Advice.


Need free legal advice?

If you have a non-urgent legal issue and need some initial advice our law clinic may be able to assist you. Our online law clinic is staffed by law students under the supervision of qualified solicitors.

The sorts of cases that we often deal with include, holiday complaints, civil litigation, consumer issues, employment law, landlord and tenant issues, family law, negligence claims and small claims matters.

The clinic seeks to provide practical legal experience for our law students and to offer a professional service to clients with legal problems.

However, we reserve the right to decline any cases that do not complement the educational aims of the clinic.

Because we are dependent on our law students' availability, we cannot guarantee to take on every case we receive. We are not able to help everyone that contacts us.

The Open Justice Law Clinic cannot advise on urgent matters, criminal, welfare benefits, debt, immigration or provide representation in court proceedings. We are unable to pursue a claim against The Open University, its Governors, employees or students. We won't be able to take a case forward if it falls outside the clinic’s expertise, if there is a conflict of interest or if urgent assistance is required.

How to contact us

The Clinic is currently closed and will open again later in 2023. If you need support in the meantime please contact Citizens Advice.


law works award winners

Award winning law clinic

The Open Justice Centre’s Law Clinic won the Best Legal Tech Contribution in the 2019 Attorney General Student Pro Bono Awards

 

Open Justice Law Clinic testimonials

Quotes from students and clients who have been involved in recent law clinic activities.

The OU Law Clinic provided me with incredibly speedy and efficient service, at a time in my life when I did not know where, or who to turn to. I have nothing but praise for how professional and patient they have been with me and I shall definitely, be taking their advice and following the recommendation within the report I received from them.

The experience I have had undertaking the Open Justice activities, and in particular the Legal Advice Clinic, has been some of the most rewarding of any other during my law degree and I am hoping that I can continue to be involved after I graduate. Working on live cases has given me the opportunity not only to make a practical difference to people’s lives, but also to test my legal knowledge and skills

From my perspective it has been a fantastic experience so far. Although the workload has been more demanding than we might have expected, there have also been opportunities to really stretch our skills by getting to grips with a complex case and developing our understanding of both practical and technical approaches to issues such as special counsel and abuse of process. It has certainly given me a lot of motivation and opened my eyes to potentially looking at criminal practice, which I would never have considered before. Activities like this, earlier in the course, would certainly be a great incentive to get through the remaining modules!

The free service is comprehensive and invaluable in guiding people towards understanding a stressful legal situation when they do not have the financial means to pay for advice.

I enjoyed this course the most of any level three module and the pro bono PLE and Clio activities helped to secure my new job. It’s working with my local council to implement the new Homelessness Act legislation. The pro-bono activities really helped in the interview, especially the Clio client work as I was able to draw upon the experience of researching the client’s legal issue.

I found the service to be professional and helpful in every way. I was surprised by the very high quality of the pro-bono advice. I wouldn't have access to the information the service provided by any other means, except to pay the prohibitive fees of a solicitor, which I cannot afford. The service put my mind at rest and listed comprehensively all the pointers for negotiating my legal quandary, should it get more complex in the future. The procedures were straightforward and inspired total confidence.

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