Welcome to St James Legal Advice Centre!

Who are we?

We are a charity providing free legal advice to those who cannot afford access to justice, empowering clients to understand their legal rights. We are made up of a dedicated team of volunteer solicitors, barristers, trainees and law students.  

We operate across three different locations on different days of the week:

• Tuesday mornings (10 am -12 noon) at the Wilton Community Church in Muswell Hill

• Wednesday afternoons (1-3 pm) at the Salvation Army in Wood Green

• Saturday mornings (9.30 am - 12 noon) at St James’ Church in Muswell Hill

All clinics have wheelchair access.

Who can we help?

Our services are means-tested. Generally, we can only provide advice to people who:

• Do not have a household income above £40,000 a year; and

• Do not have accessible liquid assets (e.g. cash savings in a bank account) above £20,000

There are exceptions for people with dependents or who are unable to access legal advice due to particular vulnerabilities.

Please ensure you have a read of our client care statement and privacy notice on our documents page before coming to see us.

What can we help with?

Our main areas of legal advice include employment, welfare benefits, housing matters, neighbour disputes and consumer contracts.

All clinics aim to provide some general advice concerning your legal matter. Our Tuesday and Wednesday clinics may be able to draft letters and emails on your behalf, help you organise files, and provide guidance in filling out forms.

None of our clinics is able to advise in criminal proceedings nor on debt or consumer credit matters. 

Specialist clinics

We run occasional specialist clinics in employment and family law, as well as an immigration support clinic.  This term's dates are as follows:.

Family law clinic at our Wood Green clinic generally on the last Wednesday of the month.  Dates for the summer term are: 30th April, 4th June, 25th June and 16th July.

Employment law clinics

Dates for employment law clinics during the spring term are: 

• Wilton clinic:  6th & 27th May, 17th June, 1st and 15th July 2025.

• Muswell Hill clinic: 

Immigration support clinic at our Wood Green clinic generally on the first Wednesday of the month. Dates for the summer term are: 14th May, 4th June and 2nd July 2025.

Please note that our immigration support clinic can provide you with general information on immigration law and help you to understand forms and documents. We are not able to take on your case, complete any forms for you or give you any form of personalised immigration advice, but we can recommend suitable organisations to help you if necessary.

How we operate

We provide drop-in services across our three clinics. Appointments cannot be made, and we do not respond to emails requesting advice.  

We operate on a first-come, first-served basis. You are more likely to be seen if you arrive early! We close our doors to clients 30 minutes before the clinic closing time. However, if the clinic reaches full capacity earlier, we reluctantly have to close the doors when this happens.

We strive to accommodate everyone who arrives on time. However, if the clinic is too busy, you may be asked to return the next week or visit one of our other locations.

Each advice session is typically limited to 15 minutes, and we can address only one legal issue per visit. If you have multiple issues, you may need to visit more than once; for instance, returning the following week to discuss additional matters.