New service will help vulnerable (From Witney Gazette)

New service will help vulnerable

3:24pm Monday 19th March 2007 in Witney By Tim Hughes

DAVID Cameron is helping to launch a pioneering legal advice service, designed for isolated and vulnerable people.

The Witney MP will give his seal of approval to the service which will provide free and independent legal advice via a web cam, to people using family centres around the county.

The new Legal Advice Direct (LAD) service is the brainchild of Witney solicitor Marlan Higgins, and will improve access to high-quality legal advice for socially excluded people and residents of isolated rural communities.

It will be launched on Thursday, at the offices of LAD-Solicitors, in Bridge Street, Witney.

Joining the Tory party leader will be Geoff Mountjoy, regional director of the South & West Legal Services Commission.

Mr Higgins, said: "The Legal Advice Direct web cam system we have developed is unique. Callers talk to an operator, who will check for entitlement to legal aid, provide general advice, or forward the client to a specialist advisor or solicitor.

"Many clients - especially members of black and minority ethnic communities, older people, young people, people with disabilities, those living in isolated communities, or those fleeing domestic violence - do not or cannot access face-to-face advice.

"The aim of Legal Advice Direct is to create a network of video-linked access points from agencies within communities, making legal advice and information easier to get. It not only allows the client to get advice in a convenient location. but also allows them to talk with more than one agency at a time. These agencies will eventually form the Social Welfare Network."

Geoff Mountjoy said: "This new service will greatly improve access to justice in Oxfordshire, particularly for the most vulnerable client groups. We have already seen the enormous benefits of funding telephone advice, and this smart use of web cam technology adds a new dimension to how people access legal aid and how face-to-face services are delivered."

Legal Advice Direct will initially offer links to family centres in Chipping Norton, Oxford, and Banbury. Mr Higgins and Oxfordshire County Council plan to roll out the service throughout Oxfordshire within 18 months, extending the number of access points to 12.

By working with the Legal Services Commission and other local authorities, he also hopes to extend the service to Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, and Hampshire by 2010.

Before creating and developing LAD-Solicitors, Mr Higgins was a partner in the Oxford human rights firm Turpin Miller & Higgins, where he oversaw the development of the non-immigration civil department. He still practises as a solicitor, and specialises in housing and community care litigation.