Complete the application form online or download one
Before you apply, check if you are eligible. | |
Click here for the online application form. You will need to upload all your documents to it. If you need practical (not legal) support in filling out our application form, organising your documents and/or during a court hearing, please see whether Support Through Court can help you. | |
Click here for a guide on how to upload and organise your documents. | |
If you prefer an offline form, download one and email it along with your documents to enquiries@weareadvocate.org.uk. We can only accept non-urgent postal applications. The more information you can give us, the more likely we will be able to help. Unfortunately, we cannot give legal advice over the phone. |
Advocate looks for free legal help from barristers for people who cannot get public funding (legal aid) and cannot afford to pay. Given that we rely on volunteers, we cannot always guarantee success, but if your case is eligible, we will try. We may be able to find you free legal help if:
In exceptional circumstances, we may be able to help with a case that has a hearing or deadline within three weeks if you are at imminent risk of:
Please choose one of the following:
It is really important that you tell us as much as you can on the form and give us all the documents and dates we ask for. The more information we have, the more likely it is that we will be able review your case and not have to keep asking you for more information.
Once a caseworker has received your application form, we will begin to get to grips with understanding your case. We might need to contact you directly and collect more documents. When we have everything we need, your case will be sent to one of our volunteer reviewers, who will decide whether we can look for help. They will assess your case on financial and legal merits. This process takes several weeks and we prioritise cases with upcoming hearing deadlines.
If your case is accepted by Advocate, we will attempt to match you with a barrister who can provide you with legal advice, drafting or representation in court/tribunal.