Opportunity Background
Veterans Legal Link supports Armed Forces Veterans and their immediate families when things go wrong. VLL is a completely remote service covering the entire geographical area of Wales, and assisting individuals in every single county in Wales. The clinic also offers help and advice to those in England and further afield on a case by case basis.
The remit of advice and help provided is very wide, each beneficiary is assessed and may receive legal advice, casework, holistic signposting, emotional support or all of the above depending on their need.
Many of those individuals are below the poverty line, and the majority of our beneficiaries suffer from severe physical and mental health challenges, making accessing legal advice all the more challenging.
Veterans Legal Link is owned and operated by Aberystwyth University and is a not for profit legal clinic. Since 2015 Veterans Legal Link has sourced and provided legal advice and casework to thousands of veterans and family members across England and Wales.
Despite being a university legal clinic, the clinic offers services 52 weeks of the year, and there is currently no waiting list to access the service. In 2024, the clinics will be partnering with NHS services to increase registrations to cover 1000 more veteran families this year alone.
Assistance Sought
VLL are seeking volunteer lawyers (solicitors or CILEX) based in Wales to join their volunteer pool and offer one off legal advice and/or case advice on a completely remote basis in any of the following areas
- Employment law
- Housing and eviction
- Immigration
- Wills and probate
- Welfare law
- Family law (divorce, financial settlement, children, domestic violence)
- Property law
We would require one off advice sessions attended by the veteran in question who would be supported by one of our student case advice team, who would undertake a fact building exercise prior to the appointment and which will be provided to the advisor before hand and in good time. Such sessions can be via telephone or video depending on the advisor’s preference.
We would ask that advisors volunteer their time a minimum of two hours per month, which will provide advice to two individuals each month per advisor in respect of supported advice sessions (30 minutes reading, 30 minutes advice per beneficiary). You are able to offer more than this if you wish to do so.