Advice and Information – Contact us

Human Rights Information Line

WHAT WE CAN AND CAN’T HELP WITH

Liberty’s Human Rights Information Line provides free legal information in response to questions about public law and human rights law within England and Wales.

We cannot provide specific legal advice on an ongoing legal case, but will do our best to explain the legal background to your situation and offer some practical next steps.

Please note we can’t offer casework or legal representation.

If you are looking for legal representation, please see our page I need a lawyer for more information about how to find a lawyer.

Public law and human rights law involve the individual and public bodies (e.g. the government, the council, the police, etc.).

We can answer questions about issues like:

  • how you were treated by the police
  • how you were treated in custody
  • how you were treated at a protest
  • organising a protest
  • discrimination by police, the council, or other public bodies
  • your right to privacy
  • Community Protection Notices given to those experiencing homelessness

We can’t provide information about topics which don’t involve public bodies.

We can’t answer questions about issues like:

  • your neighbours
  • your landlord (unless it’s the council)
  • your family
  • your criminal defence case

We also can’t provide information on the law outside of England and Wales.

We have pages on our website dealing with many of the questions we are frequently asked, including how to find immigration advice, how to find family law advice, how to make a police complaint and what to do if you think you are under surveillance.

OPENING HOURS

You can reach the Human Rights Information Line by calling 0800 988 8177 and selecting option 3 from the main menu.

The Line runs twice a week at the following times:

  • Monday evenings from 6pm to 8pm 
  • Tuesday lunchtimes from 12pm to 2pm

The Human Rights Information Line is closed on bank holidays

Please note, we receive many calls and have limited capacity. This means you may experience a wait before you get through to one of our advisers. Our Human Rights Information Line is usually very busy when it first opens. If you cannot get through immediately, we suggest that you try calling back during the second hour of opening, when we are usually much quieter.

We encourage you to follow Liberty on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), sign up to our mailing list, or check this page regularly for updates on our Advice & Information service.

Written advice

How we prioritise queries

Before submitting a written query, please first check that it is not already answered on our Advice & Information hub.

If you cannot find the answer to your question and want to get written advice from us, please read the information below about how we prioritise queries and then use our webform, linked below.

We get many more people asking for our help than Liberty has the capacity to respond to. Because of this, we assess each query we receive and prioritise queries which:

  • Fall within our areas of expertise
  • Relate to Liberty’s key campaigning areas
  • We can provide valuable advice on
  • Can be responded to in time to meet any formal deadlines in your case.

If your query does not fit the above criteria, unfortunately we will be unable to provide you with written advice.

Unfortunately, even if your query does meet these criteria, the number of queries we receive means we may not have the capacity to respond to even priority cases.

If we cannot advise you, we will do our best to let you know as soon as possible. We will also try to direct you to other places you may be able to get advice and information, including specialist services related to your query.

If we can advise you, we aim to get back to you within six weeks. If your query is urgent, we would recommend that you call our Human Rights Information Line instead.

Please click here to access our webform to submit your query.

Other options

If you need urgent legal advice, you might want to consider contacting a solicitor. See our I need a lawyer page for more information or search online using the following directories: