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Contact
MarstonHarbottle, Solicitors
Orchard House
Priestpopple
Hexham
Northumberland, NE46 1PQ
Tel: 01434 602486
Fax: 01434 600229

Until January 2000, if you were financially eligible, you could go to any firm of solicitors and be granted legal aid or legal help. The problem with this approach was that it meant that solicitors who did not have the necessary know-how, experience or specialism could provide you with advice or representation which was not necessarily the best. The government realised that this was not an effective way of spending the very limited funds which are made available for legal aid, and so changed the system so that the only firms who can now offer legal aid or legal help are those firms who have been Quality Assured by the Legal Services Commission and who have to produce work to an extremely high standard.

MarstonHarbottle have held a franchise in matrimonial/family, crime, personal injury since June 1997 and in mental health since May 1999. In January 2000, we were granted a contract enabling us to be able to offer Legal Help to the public and to carry out certificated legal aid work.

Legal Help
If you have a legal problem and you are on Income Support or Income Based Job Seeker's Allowance and your capital is less than £8,000 you will qualify for Legal Help. This scheme enables us to provide you with free legal advice. If you are not on the above State Benefits you may still be eligible for Legal Help. To see if you might be eligible, please telephone Rosemary Nelson who will calculate whether or not you are eligible.

Legal Aid/Public Funding
You may qualify for Civil Legal Aid for cases other than personal injury (e.g. matrimonial, children, civil litigation, housing, debt) if your income and capital are under certain limits or if you are in receipt of Income Support or Income Based Job Seeker's Allowance provided the Legal Services Commission feel that your case justifies spending public funding. You may be asked to pay a contribution towards the cost of your legal aid. Again, if you wish to find out if you might be eligible and if so what contribution you would have to pay for public funding, please telephone Rosemary Nelson who will carry out the necessary calculations.

£20 Fixed Fee Interview
In an effort to diagnose a legal problem, we operate a £20 Fixed Fee Interview Scheme. Under this scheme, you can see a solicitor for up for 30 minutes, who can advise you as to whether or not you have a case that is worth proceeding with, for a fee of £20, inclusive of VAT. This payment simply covers that legal advice - if you want additional work carried out, we would charge you at our usual rates. Should you be eligible for Legal Help as detailed above, we would claim our costs under that scheme and not charge £20 for the Fixed Fee Interview.

Free 15 Minute Employment Advice Interview
To assist Clients in identifying employment problems, we operate a scheme which provides a one-off 15 minute free employment advice interview with Jane Marston. If you wish to take matters further, we will either charge you at our usual rates, or it may be possible to take on your case on the basis of a Conditional or Contingent Fee (known as a No Win No Fee Agreement).

We also run free legal clinics each Thursday at Prudhoe and Haltwhistle where we give 20 minutes free legal advice to clients. To arrange an appointment for these clinics, please ring reception on 01434 602486.