Free Legal Information on the Web for Individuals Organised by Topics
maintained by Delia Venables
Please note that this page provides links to sources of legal information on the web, but I have no means of knowing whether the information provided on these sites is correct or not. If you know of other useful sources of free legal information, please tell me - delia@venables.co.uk Last updated on April 23rd.

Landlord and Tenant Cases, and Housing generally

  • Citizens Advice Bureau provides information on housing matters.
  • Shelter provides housing advice in England, with sections on Homelessness, Finding accommodation, Help with housing costs, Home ownership, Renting privately and EU Accession. For advice in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, start here.
  • Coventry Law Centre has set up a detailed advice section on housing, welfare benefits and employment. The briefing sheets can be downloaded in pdf or Word formats. There is also a very extensive set of links on legal advice centres and resources in each of these areas.
  • Landlord-Law Onlineis a site set up by solicitor Tessa Shepperson to provide "packaged" advice to private residential landlords and tenants. There are documents and forms which can be filled in online, an extensive set of FAQ's (based on real questions sent in to Tessa), an interactive "Tenancy Trail" allowing tenants to find out what kind of tenancy they have and the implications of this, a questions and answers section where you can put a question to Tessa to answer, book reviews, regular features articles, a monthly cartoon, and a regular newsletter. There is also a Law Reform section with information about government consultation papers, plus a directory of Local Authorities showing services provided by LAs to the private residential sector. Much of the site is free but access to documents and more detailed information requires a subscription of 50 for a year or 20 for 4 months. Members of the site get also access to fixed fee legal services eg for repossession and advice, and can purchase 'Online Kits' for bringing county court claims for rent arrears and repossession.
  • Sykes Anderson, London, provide a free package for residential landlords to do their own DIY possession proceedings. There is also a FAQ section for both tenants and landlords in commercial property.
  • Denison Till - York, provides a substantial article called Buying to Let - a Risky Business or Safe as Houses? (take the articles link).
  • Leasehold Advisory Service is an independent advice agency, funded partly by Government grant and partly by the private sector, providing free advice to leaseholders, landlords, professional advisers and others on the law affecting residential leasehold property.
  • compactlaw.co.uk is a commercial concern offering advice and documents on this topic.
  • LandlordZONE is a portal for landlords involved in letting property - novice and experienced alike. It provides free access to information, resources and contacts of value to residential & small commercial landlords, tenants, letting agents and other property professionals. There is a glossary of legal terms with extensive descriptions and information on each. The site is run by Parkmatic Publications Limited of Hawkshaw, Lancashire.
  • RIKY is an interesting site for landlords which offers a great deal of free information and advice and then provides a membership at modest prices which enables members to access forms and documents and obtain tenant credit checks. Areas covered on the site include the ability to find out what letter, notice or form is required, issue rent arrears notices, compare Landlord's Insurance and issue a Section 21 Notice. There are also sections to explain property investing, Tenancy Agreements, Landlords Tax, Legislation (TDS, HMO, HSSRS and HB) and provision of a free Tenants Handbook and a free Buy to Let Finance Guide.

    Legal Aid - now provided by the Legal Services Commission

  • The Legal Service Commission is an executive non-departmental public body created under the Access to Justice Act 1999 to replace the Legal Aid Board. It is responsible for the development and administration of two schemes in England and Wales: The Legal Services Commission will only pay solicitors and other organisations to provide help if they can meet certain standards. Organisations which have met the Commission's standards will display the Community Legal Service Quality Mark or CDS logo.

  • Citizens Advice Bureau provides extensive and detailed information on "help with legal costs".

  • Scottish Legal Aid Board
  • Compact Law offers information on who is eligible for public funding, and on what types of case.
  • Fisher Jones Greenwood offers a variety of "calculators" to work out whether you are likely to qualify for legal aid, including green form and criminal legal aid; you fill in your financial details and the program advises you (but only if you have the Macromedia Shockwave plug-in).
  • Warner Goodman & Streat - Fareham, Hampshire, provides further information (take "Litigation")

    Magistrates and Judges

  • Department for Constitutional Affairs (previously the Lord Chancellor's Department) provides information on magistrates, including the work they do and how to become one and various policy issues relating to magistrates.
  • Judiciary is a new site to explain the work of judges to members of the public. Apparently there are 42,000 judicial office holders in England and Wales. There is lots of information on the roles, responsibilities and powers of the different members of the judiciary; information on the history of the judiciary; the importance of judicial independence; and key concepts like judgments, sentencing powers, practice directions, and tribunal decisions. You can even find out about judicial dress.
  • The Magistrates Association, representing 29,000 lay magistrates, is designed to help the public understand the history and the work of magistrates and includes information on how to become one.

    Mental Health

  • Mark Walton provides extensive information on the Mental Health Act (1983), the Mental Health (Patients in the Community) Act 1995 and Mental Health Law and topics generally. The site covers the relevant legislation, Government and Local Authority policy relating to mental health, cases, tribunals, articles and plans for further reform. There is also a very impressive list of other sites relating to these areas with full descriptions of each.
  • Mental Health Act 1983 - Hyperguide, sponsored by Lambeth Healthcare NHS Trust, the NHS Confederation and London Solicitors Le Brasseur J Tickle.

    Notaries

  • The Notaries Society is the representative society for the 900 Notaries' Public practising in England and Wales outside Central London. Their web site has information about notaries and a search process to find one in any particular area.

    Here are some sites of notaries who give information on this topic:

  • Anderson & Co. provide leaflets which can be downloaded from the site about the functions of notaries and how to use them. The notary at the firm is Victor Warner.
  • Kober-Smith & Associates provide the full range of Public Notary services for private and commercial clients in London and internationally. The site provides an extensive set of FAQs with information on this topic, all in a number of languages.
  • Nicholas Cook, who is part of legal firm Wollastons, in Chelmsford, describes the purpose and function of a notary and gives a guide to notarial services.
  • Philip Price, practising from the offices of Brian Barr, of Manchester, provides useful information on notaries, what they do, when you need one, how to use them and what they charge.
  • Wallace & Co. - Balham, London, describes what Notaries are "for" (take the "notary services" link at the bottom of the home page). Philip Wallace says..."Documents which are sent to England to be signed here almost always need to be witnessed by a Notary Public. This is also true for Commonwealth countries or countries under British protection. Confusion arises when documents coming from English-speaking countries appear to need witnessing by a 'solicitor' or a 'commissioner for oaths'. This means a local solicitor or commissioner, but if the document is signed here it must be notarised."
  • notaries.co.uk is a commercial directory of Notaries in England and Wales.
  • John Venn & Sons gives an A - Z guide to the jargon.

    Patents, Trade Marks and Intellectual Property

  • The UK Patent Office provides information on patents, trade marks, copyright and intellectual property, designed for members of the public as well as patent experts.
  • Mewburn Ellis LLP is one of the UK's largest firms of Chartered Patent Attorneys, European Patent Attorneys, European Trade Mark Attorneys and European Design Attorneys. They cover the full range of intellectual property issues: Patents, Trade Marks, Designs, Industrial Copyright and related matters. There is "basic" information in the site as well as detailed practice sheets for those already knowledgeable.
  • Williams, Powell, British and European patent and trade mark attorneys based in London, provide lots of information on patents, trade marks and intellectual property.
  • Jenkins are Trade Mark and Patent Attorneys with a very impressive set of resources on their site, including UK Patent Statutes and Statutory Instruments, comprehensively hyperlinked, here.
  • Tomkins, Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys based in Dublin, provide a useful introduction to patents, trade marks and design. There is also a set of links to patent-related material.
  • Denison Till - York, provides a substantial article called Registration of a Trade Mark (take the articles link).
  • Copyrightvault.com is a company set up to give musicians, authors, programmers and artists a service to register their copyright. There are plans to provide a panel of solicitors able to take on cases associated with copyright problems. The company is run by solicitor Phil Kurthausen.
  • brandslaw.com is a new site set up by Field Fisher Waterhouse. The site offers free online information on all aspects of protecting brands globally, including online diagrams of the processes for UK and OHIM trade mark applications and opposition proceedings, updates on legal developments across the world, case reports covering trade mark decisions made by the UK Patent Office and the OHIM Court of First Instance of the European Communities, selected extracts from various treatises and a selection of newsletters, guides and articles to download or view online.
  • Crossguard are Trade Mark & Copyright Attorneys covering all areas of trade mark registration, brand selection, protection and licensing, copyright, design law, domain name disputes, and character and personality rights. They offer a free 20 page guide Trade Marks, Brand Protection & Related Copyright and Design available by email.

    Planning Matters including Highways, Boundary Problems and Gardens

  • planning-applications.co.uk is a free comprehensive guide to all aspects of the UK Town Planning System, prepared by Ian P.Butter BSc FRICS a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors with over 20 years professional experience in the field of planning. There are guides to submitting planning applications, planning appeals, planning enforcement, permitted development, a database of local authority sites, links to useful sources of information and specific professional advice, as well as national Development Plan monitoring. The site also runs an email based enquiry service, with simple queries answered for free.
  • The John Huges Partnership - Birmingham, offers information on Town & Country Planning, Highways and Environmental law, as well as a glossary of terms relating to Planning law.
  • Cavell House is a site from Nicholas Hancox, Solicitors, covering Highways Law. Topics covered include maintenance, obstruction, case law, compulsory purchase and also the law relating to the many different types of council and public body who have a role in Highways and Planning.
  • The Boundary Problems Website has been set up by Jon Maynard, FRICS, on boundaries, rights of way, neighbour problems and related topics, including how to find an expert to assist in solving the problem and lnks to other planning-oriented websites.
  • Garden Law is a site set up by solicitor Richard Smithies of Bearders Solicitors, Brighouse, West Yorkshire, with lots of free information relating to walls, trees, hedges, fences, boundaries and even whether you can bury a loved one in your garden. There is also a discussion forum were visitors can post questions and receive answers from Richard Smithies or other viewers.
  • Gary Webber is a barrister who specialises in property law, and is author of two widely used books on possession actions. His site includes substantial papers on property claims and the Civil Procedure Rules, an "on-line" book dealing with boundary disputes and other material of use to property litigators.

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    Note to solicitors or other providers of free legal information for individuals:
    Please email me - delia@venables.co.uk

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