Comment | 'Legal advice does not have to cost the earth'
By Sonja Dale, Supervising Solicitor at Keele University. This article first appeared as a Personally Speaking column in the Stoke Sentinel in October 2025.
How does it feel to know that you need legal advice - but also know that you can't afford it? Personally speaking, I have been in that position. Several years ago, I spent a month's salary on receiving advice from a specialist lawyer. It told me I was probably morally in the right, but it would cost me tens of thousands of pounds to prove that in a court. So, on top of spending all that money, it wasn't even good news.
My experience is one of the reasons that I'm involved in the Keele University School of Law Legal Advice Clinic. I, together with my solicitor colleague Sarah Askey, am one of the solicitors that supervises the students. We encourage our students' commitment to volunteering their time. We help our students to understand our clients' feelings and worries. We train them to be able to advise people without cost. It's important to remember though that this is not without cost to the students. They give up time to volunteer. This is often at the expense of other university clubs and activities.
I am immensely proud of this year's cohort of student advisers. Just last week, we put them through three days of intense activities and training. This was to make sure that the public can trust them. Our students understand the importance of confidentiality. They were trained in the IT systems we use to protect client information. We discussed the law around key topics. They learned how to listen empathetically, how to speak clearly, and how to advise professionally. What does this mean for people locally? It means that you can ask for legal advice relating to business matters or small claims disputes and it does not matter that you cannot pay for that advice. If we cannot help you, we will tell you straightaway. We know that you will understand that some areas of law are beyond what our students can deal with. The easiest way to do that is to email our clinic administrator Becci Dennis-Benn via legal-advice-clinc@keele.ac.uk. However, we also offer some short, in-person appointments at our town centre location, Keele in Town.
What can you expect at Keele in Town? On Wednesday afternoons between 1.30pm and 3pm during term time, we will be there with two students. We will ask you a few questions to find out if your query is the sort of thing we can help with. If it is, we will give you a 30-minute appointment there and then to try to get to the bottom of what assistance you need. They will try to give you some basic legal advice on the spot, but the students may have to do a bit of research and write to you afterwards.
We don't have the resources to help everyone. We can only manage to see around four clients each Wednesday and that can be very frustrating to us - we want to support everyone. However, time and resources are against us. As solicitors, we also have to be really careful not to dabble in areas that we do not know enough about. However, we will try our best to point you in the right direction if we can't assist you this time. If you would like to use our service, please drop in to Keele in Town at 53 Ironmarket, Newcastle, on Wednesday afternoon or email us for a videocall appointment.
Our students want to help you. They use their energy to do something positive for others. They spend long hours researching the law to help strangers. That, though, is at the heart of pro bono work. Helping your local community when they need it, without hesitation and without charge.
