SILKS Law Clinic
Free legal advice for the community.
If you need advice in one of our areas of law, please fill in the contact form along with your message and we will get back to you.
Do you need legal help with
- Housing?
- Family?
We’re here to help you understand your rights and what you can do if you need help with divorce and family troubles or with housing problems.
Good legal advice can be expensive and cuts in legal aid mean it is beyond the means of the people who need it most.
SILKS is a legal advice service for the community. The advice is given by qualified lawyers, helped by University of Salford law students working under supervision.
Law Clinic - free housing and family law advice
It can be frustrating when you’re faced with a legal issue and feel like you have nobody to turn to.
Request an appointment now and access free and practical advice from a solicitor, aimed at helping you move your problem forward.
During your meeting our solicitor will be assisted by our team of University of Salford law students who will help with creating documentation and taking notes of your meeting.
Following the interview our team will send you a brief ‘confirmation of advice’ form. This will summarise our understanding of your problem, detail the advice we have given and outline any next steps that you need to take in clear, easy to understand language.
Where?
The Salford Law Clinic is located in the Maxwell Building, University of Salford, The Crescent, Salford M5 4WT.
When?
Housing - Weekly, on Tuesdays, by appointment only.
Family - Weekly, on Thursdays, by appointment only.
Streetlaw - free workshops on employment tribunal procedure
Preparing for an employment tribunal can be a worrying time. Our free workshop, run jointly with students from BPP University, will help you understand the process and the order in which things take place more clearly and covers the following areas.
- Overview of the Tribunal process from start to final hearing
- Practical stages from when claim is received up to the hearing
- How the case is managed
- What to expect at a preliminary hearing
- Compiling a bundle of documents
- Preparing a witness statement
- Who sits where in the Tribunal room
- What order the parties will speak in
- What to expect from cross-examination
- What happens after the hearing
Where?
Manchester Employment Tribunal
Alexandra House
14-22 The Parsonage
Manchester
M3 2JA
When?
Monthly (in term time), 4.15pm – 5.30pm
Benefiting Salford - the Benefits, Advice Support Scheme (BASS)
The welfare benefits system is complicated, making it very easy for errors to occur that can lead to benefit appeal hearings.
Working together with Salford Citizens Advice, one of our law students may provide you with support and practical assistance at your ESA/Universal Credit or PIP benefit appeal hearing. They’ll take notes, help you with locating documents in your bundle and will point you in the right direction afterwards including referring you back to Citizens Advice if you need further advice.
Where?
People wanting to access this scheme should first contact Salford Citizens Advice, who will refer suitable cases to us.
Hearings supported by our students will usually be those heard at the Manchester Civil Justice Centre or Piccadilly Plaza.
When?
The Benefiting Salford service is subject to a student volunteer being available on the date of your benefit appeal hearing.
Our service
Our students are on-hand to provide you with free advice, information and support on benefits appeals, housing and family law as well as employment tribunal procedure.
Expert supervision
The service is supervised by local practising solicitors from our partner firms, Fieldings Porter and Ward Hadaway, and our own highly qualified academics, who are also experienced solicitors.
High quality, free legal advice
Our students get invaluable hands on experience. You get high quality, free legal advice under the watchful eye of expert solicitors.
Partners
Fieldings Porter Solicitors are a long established law firm providing a range of legal services and with offices in Bolton Town Centre and Manchester City Centre.
Ward Hadaway is one of the UK's Top 100 law firms and a major provider in the North of England with offices in Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds.
Our students
If you’re a final year law student studying at the University of Salford, apply to work with SILKS.
You’ll enjoy the opportunity to do pro bono work that supports people in real need, apply your knowledge and learn from professionals.
"I’m very pleased to tell you that I’ve been awarded a Major Scholarship which covers all my course fees (and more!). The employment barrister on my interviewing panel was particularly impressed by my clinic work and what I had to say about it, so I really will never be able to thank you both enough for the opportunity."
Emma Clarke, Law Student
News and celebrations
Shortlisted for the Best Contribution by a Team of Students at the LawWorks and Attorney General Student Pro Bono Awards 2020
Teams of students from the University of Salford and BPP University have worked together to deliver an innovative pro bono project to unrepresented employment litigants in the Greater Manchester area, with the active support of the Regional Employment Judge and the Manchester Employment Tribunal. Initially students undertook employment law training and attended hearings in order to prepare two Streetlaw information packages, one covering Employment Tribunal procedures and the other addressing what to expect at a final hearing. Referrals were then made by the Manchester Employment Tribunal and other third sector organisations to encourage the widest possible audience of individuals (who have either made a claim or who have a potential claim) to attend training sessions which are delivered by the students with clear and accurate information about the preparation required for an Employment Tribunal hearing.
Find us
The Salford Law Clinic is located in the Maxwell Building, University of Salford, The Crescent, Salford M5 4WT.