"Providing Access to Justice and Equality" – Welcome to Norfolk Community Law Service (NCLS). Free, independent and confidential legal advice

Coronavirus Update

Our office will be closed for face-to-face advice from 18^th March 2020 and we are switching to providing advice by telephone for the foreseeable future.

In light of the current situation we need to make changes to the way we run our services to help protect our staff and clients. We are doing all we can to ensure that everyone gets the help they need from us during this difficult time. An update on our services is below.

Our contact details are:
Telephone: 01603 496623/07900 153753
Text: 07900 153753
WhatsApp: 07900 153753
Email: info@ncls.co.uk (if your query is urgent it is best to call us)

Please note:

As a charity we are only funded to help people who live in Norfolk.
calls we make to you will appear as a withheld or mobile number.
If you call us it may take as a while to answer so please don’t hang up. This is because our phone lines are being diverted from our office number to a mobile. We do have an answerphone which you can leave a message on if we don’t answer.

Free Legal Advice: Our drop-ins are cancelled however we will be working hard to still provide advice over the phone and if you are in need of assistance please call, message or email us. We will not be able to provide immediate advice but will do all we can to get you a call with someone who can help as soon as we can.

Advice services: Our Advisers are set up to work from home and are taking on new clients, to access the service call, message or email us and your details will be passed to someone who can help and they will give you a call to arrange a phone appointment.

Existing clients: please be assured that our Advisers are still working on your cases and will be in contact with any updates. If you do need to speak to someone about your case please contact us.

Our Family Court Support Service continues to support existing and new clients with Child Arrangements cases as best we can whilst we and the courts are working remotely. Please contact us on the above numbers or email us on family@ncls.co.uk if you would like our help.

Post: you are still able to send things to us but we are only able to collect our post once a week so please bear this in mind. Anything that we send out to you may also take a little longer to reach you.

Thank you for your patience during this time, we welcome any feedback or comments.

We are a registered charity dedicated to providing access to justice and equality in Norfolk.

We target our services at individuals and groups, particularly those who cannot afford access to justice and representation. This includes, for example, those with long term physical and/or mental ill-health, physical and sensory disabilities and/or learning difficulties, offenders, ex-offenders, migrant workers and others who are disadvantaged. The advice we offer is non-discriminatory and confidential.

We provide the following services which are all free, independent and confidential.

twice weekly Free Legal Advice (FLA) drop in service in our Norwich office – employment, family & general advice; also similar services at Cromer and Great Yarmouth. Please be aware we are unable to provide any advice on criminal law matters except where there is an issue of domestic abuse, e.g. any matter that involves the police or the Crown Prosecution Service.
debt advice for vulnerable people and those with complex needs
welfare benefits advice and representation at Tribunal
legal advice for victims of domestic abuse
immigration advice on residence in the UK and help with Home Office applications. We can also offer help with challenging Welfare Benefits Habitual Residence decisions.
discrimination advice and representation
rent arrears mediation for Norwich City Council (NCC) housing tenants. This service is accessed by referral from NCC only
family court support for private law child contact matters

Interpreters are available for all our services by arrangement.

For more details and information on how to access click on ‘Our Services’ above.

Our funding comes from a range of grants, service level agreements and donations – more information can be found in our latest Annual Report which is available here.

Free Legal Advice client

“Excellent service, so pleased I came to see you. Service, advice and staff all so useful and you’ve helped me massively. Thank you.”

Welfare Rights client

“Very impressed with the speed and efficiency of the help you gave me. The support was invaluable to me at a time when I felt unable to support myself with my appeal. “

Family Court Support Service Client

“I was so worried about things alone and felt amazed when I was approached at Court. Couldn’t have wished for anything better. Thank you”

Debt Client

“Yes a big thank you to all of the team at NCLS for your help I feel like a weight has been lifted. Thank you!”

Migrant Worker Client

“A great service that is easy to access and very valuable advice in complex legal situation that also changes regularly. Person delivered service much appreciated.”

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