COMMUNITY HELP DIRECTORY
The Community Legal Service section featuring Bexley CLSP.

WHAT IS THE COMMUNITY LEGAL SERVICE?

The Community Legal Service (CLS) is one of a range of measures to reform the legal system included in the Access to Justice Act 1999.

The aim of the CLS is to improve access for the public to good quality information, advice and legal services through local networks of advice providers supported by co-ordinated funding and based on an assessment of local need.

The main focus of the government’s CLS initiative, which was launched in April 2000, involves:

The establishment of local Community Legal Service Partnerships, to bring together funders and providers of local information, advice and legal services, to produce a strategic plan for the provision of services in their area.
The introduction of a nationally recognised standard - the CLS Quality Mark - for the provision of legal information and help.
The development of a Community Legal Service directory and website.

BEXLEY COMMUNITY LEGAL SERVICE PARTNERSHIP

To make it easier for the public to get legal help and advice, the CLS brings together organisations offering legal and advice services into local networks/partnerships.

Bexley’s CLS Partnership was launched in 2001 and has produced an action plan for how to improve advice services in the borough over the next 3 years.

There is a Bexley CLSP web page on the Bexley council website: http://www.bexley.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=6010.