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Law centre

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Staffed by lawyers and caseworkers, law centres help people with civil legal problems such as eviction from their home, exploitation at work, discrimination and exclusion from school. They also seek to tackle the root causes of poverty and inequality in their communities.

"Law centre" is a registered trademark.

History

The law centre movement began in the UK in the early 1970s, influenced by the growth of "neighbourhood law offices" in the United States legal aid had been available in the UK since 1949, but there were few legal practices in deprived areas and few lawyers who specialised in the areas of law most relevant to poor and disadvantaged people such as housing and welfare rights.

Law centres were set up to fill this gap. The first was North Kensington Law Centre (NKLC) which opened in London on 17 July 1970. By the end of the 1970s, there were 27 law centres in the UK. By the mid-1980s there were 54, most of which were in urban areas, and at their peak there were 60.

In February 2015, there were 44 law centres in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The number of law centres and their services has been adversely affected by a series of funding cuts from central and local government. In particular, the removal of much of social welfare law from the scope of civil legal aid in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) has led to the closure of ten law centres, leaving the rest struggling to meet increased demand.

The Law Centres Network estimated that between 2013 and 2017, law centres lost more than 60% of their legal aid income and more than 40% of total income, and 11 centres had to close, leaving only 45. The North Kensington Law Centre's total income dropped from £900,000 in 2010 to about £300,000 in 2017, and in that year it was overstretched trying to find funding to help victims of the Grenfell fire. By March 2019, eligibility for assistance by legal aid had dropped to under 25%, and it no longer covered most civil and family matters.

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