Tower Hamlets Law Centre

18/12/2025

As we close the book on 2025, we are delighted to present our 50th Anniversary Year Review, now available on our website:

We are delighted to release our 50th anniversary review of 2025. This is the first such review we have released in almost ten years, and showcases work over the course of this, our 50th year in operation.

17/12/2025

‘The people working within the system are collapsing and this cannot be ignored or tolerated.’

A new report by The Bar Council exposes the extent to which lawyers are having to work, and overwork, for little or no pay.

Bar chief Barbara Mills urges government to increase legal aid rates and establish a pay review body.

15/12/2025

𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀

Employment Tribunal Judges have written and produced a series of videos to help you if you are bringing a claim to an Employment Tribunal or defending a claim that has been made against you.

Some videos explain different parts of the tribunal procedure and some videos tell you about what might happen at a hearing.

Other videos explain some of the more difficult legal principles such as different legal types of discrimination which you will need to understand. You can access the videos by clicking on their YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEF1_bG92bxst67JSs48sbdEbJPM52fhb

27/11/2025

Oliver Moore, our dedicated and hardworking Housing Caseworker, is embarking on a level 7 solicitor apprenticeship with Damar Training. He’ll be taking the course part-time over the next three years while continuing his work supporting our clients as part of our housing team.

The apprenticeship will prepare him to take the Solicitors Qualification Exams, SQE1 and SQE 2 2. Together with the qualifying work experience he’ll gain by continuing to work at the Law Centre, this will allow him to apply to join the roll of solicitors of England and Wales.

The cost of the course is being generously funded by Covington & Burling LLP through the Apprenticeship Levy scheme.

Congratulations to Oliver from everyone at the Law Centre – and the best of luck in your studies!

21/11/2025

𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐇𝐚𝐦𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐰 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐧 𝐥𝐚𝐰 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬

We were delighted to have the opportunity to provide support to final year law students at who are taking part in a project run by the Queen Mary Legal Advice Centre. This provides students with an opportunity to gain valuable experience by preparing claimants for PIP tribunals and supporting them at appeal hearings, and builds on their long-standing advice clinics staffed by supervised students.

As part of the build-up to the re-launch of the project for this year, our Welfare Benefits Supervisor Chris Parsons delivered training to the students on how to apply the law in a tribunal setting, helping ensure they are as prepared as possible.

Chris said: “This is a great opportunity to help new lawyers get a taste of what it’s like to do real-world work for clients in a tribunal setting. My input helps them to get a better sense of how to handle the tribunal in action, such as what tactics to employ, which is an important addition to their formal training in the law.”

Queen Mary Legal Advice Centre’s Supervising Solicitor, Katy Robinson, who leads the Tribunals project at QMUL, said: “We are so grateful to have Chris’ support for our students, both in this project and his long-standing support for the QMLAC. The students have benefitted greatly from Chris’ generous sharing of his experience and are looking forward to supporting as many claimants as possible to obtain the benefits to which they are entitled. Thank you, Chris and Tower Hamlets Law Centre!”

05/11/2025

Prime minister Keir Starmer urged to make positive case for ECHR after Kemi Badenoch pledged a Tory government would leave the treaty

30/10/2025

Kerry is a single mother of a child in nursery school. In 2023 she was housed by a council in temporary accommodation as part of the main housing duty. Following an unannounced inspection of her accommodation, her landlord gave her 24 hours to leave the property and the locks were changed – actions which were clearly unlawful. The council then decided on the landlords’ say-so that she had given up her accommodation and that the main housing duty was no longer owed her. They made no further attempt to investigate this allegation.

Kerry tried to appeal this decision by requesting a review, but her arguments were not considered, and the council completed the review in 8 days, when they usually take 8 weeks. She then spent a year sofa-surfing with her young child until her violent ex-partner was released from prison, putting her at risk in the area she was staying in. She applied to the council as homeless again, but they decided she was intentionally homeless because of their previous decision that she had given up her accommodation.

At her wit’s end, Kerry came to Tower Hamlets Law Centre and instructed our housing caseworker to represent her. We argued on Kerry’s behalf that her landlord’s illegal eviction had broken the chain of causation of her homelessness and raised serious concerns with the council’s failure to properly investigate the allegations and not providing her the opportunity to explain what had happened. We also helped Kerry to obtain her housing file and identified key pieces of evidence that supported her case. Following our representations, the council agreed that she was not intentionally homeless and confirmed they have accepted the main housing duty, meaning Kerry and her child will remain in stable, safe accommodation while they look for somewhere permanent.

To help us support more people like Kerry please donate via our CAF page: https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/19578 #!/DonationDetails

28/10/2025

Lunchtime cribbage at the law centre... perfect for recharging our batteries!

17/10/2025

Voluntary organisations forced to introduce extensive security measures to protect staff and property

08/10/2025

In a recent housing case involving a client who needed to be rehoused, our team got high praise from our client's social worker:

"𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑤𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑆'𝑠 𝑟𝑒ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔.

𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑗𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑦, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐼 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒, 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑣𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠.

𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑎 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑓𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑔𝑜 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑠."

This is an excellent example of the connections we are able to make with other services in order to ensure a holistic and well-rounded approach to helping the most disadvantaged to get .

02/10/2025

Tower Hamlets Law Centre celebrated our 50th anniversary last Thursday evening with a special event at Canopy by Hilton London City at which colleagues past and present came together to mark half a century of serving the local communities of Tower Hamlets. The night featured a raffle together with a silent auction of a select number of special items, which together raised almost £2,000, all of which will go directly to support the Law Centre’s work. The event was a powerful reminder of the incredible Tower Hamlets Law Centre community that has grown up around our work. Here’s to the next 50 years!

16/09/2025

Pamela is a foreign national who currently has no recourse to public funds because of her immigration status. When she came to us, she was 14 weeks’ pregnant and HIV positive. She also has care needs due to long-term health conditions, including mental health issues.

We challenged her local authority’s failure to provide accommodation under the Care Act 2014 and their failure to properly assess her needs as an expecting mother as well as assess the needs of her unborn child under the Children Act 1989.

Following our correspondence, the council provided her with weekly financial support, as well as temporary accommodation pending a full assessment of her needs and those of her unborn child. We also supported Pamela to access a community care solicitor to support her through these assessments and make sure she has all her support needs met.

To help us support more people like Pamela please donate via our CAF page: https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/19578 #!/DonationDetails