Christmas closure
The Child Law Advice Service will be closed from 24/12/2024 and will reopen on 02/01/2025.
Our telephone lines will close at 4pm on 20/12/2024 and reopen at 10am on 02/01/2025. Our webchat service will close at 4pm on 23/12/2024 and reopen at 8am on 02/01/2025. Any emails enquiries received over Christmas will be answered within 5 working days of our return to the office.
An email enquiry can be submitted 24/7 and we aim to respond within 5 working days.
Bookable callback
Available to book hourly Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm.
Please note that this is a paid-for service. Click here to book a callback.
Webchat
Our webchat service is operated by trained legal advisers and is open Monday to Friday, 8am to 5.30pm.
A webchat icon will appear on the right hand side of the page if an adviser is available.
Telephone
Open Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm.
- Family Line: 0300 330 5480
- Education line: 0300 330 5485
The demand for both lines are high and the funding we have in place is limited. We are only able to answer a limited number of calls. We would therefore ask you to carefully read through all the relevant available information provided on this website and only contact our intensive support telephone lines with genuine, clarifying questions on the information provided.
Please do not call Coram Children's Legal Centre's main reception line. You will not receive advice on this phone number and you will not be able to reach an adviser through this number.
General T&C's
- We strongly recommend reading through our service standards, privacy policy and terms and conditions prior to connecting with an adviser.
- We can only advise if the situation relates to a child residing in England.
- We cannot advise without taking a name, address and telephone number.
- We cannot advise if you have legal representation instructed on the matter you are contacting us about.
- We cannot advise if your matter falls outside of the remit of family or education law.
- We cannot provide advice on financial matters including child maintenance.
- We cannot advise on the merits of appeals.
- We cannot help students/professionals with research projects. Our staff are extremely busy and do not have the spare capacity. We would request that you view the pages of this website for information.
- Please note the webchat service is for advice only. We cannot organise a call back through this service. To book a call back please click here. If you wish to provide feedback on the service please click here for our feedback form.
- If we cannot assist due to the matter being outside of our scope, we will advise you as soon as possible and state why we cannot assist and attempt to refer you to another organisation.
- Abusive behaviour towards our staff will not be tolerated and we reserve the right to terminate the advice session if this occurs. Our staff will also not tolerate bad language being used.
Cost of calls
The Child Law Advice service operates an 0300 number which costs no more than calls to geographic (01 and 02) numbers and must be included in inclusive minutes and discount schemes in the same way. Calls from landlines and mobiles are included in free call packages. Calls from landlines are typically charged up to 9p per minute; calls from mobiles typically cost between 8p and 40p per minute.
Feedback
To leave feedback about our services, please use the form on our feedback page.
Communication difficulties
If you find it difficult to speak English, call us to connect to an interpreter. We have access to interpreters in 150 languages through Language Line.
