Advice teams helping people in North Herts struggling with their problems have added added an extra dimension to their services.

North Herts Citizens Advice Bureau has formed a partnership with national law firm Blavo & Co to offer clients free 30-minute legal advice sessions on areas including family, immigration, employment, housing, wills and probate.

The new partnership helps CAB clients get early expert help which can stop problems getting worse, and sort them out before they spiral into something more serious.

The clinics are on offer at CAB offices in North Herts, to help to address a growing need for legal advice.

An early success story has seen one local mum untangle a family contact issue – although she had been a victim of domestic violence some years ago and her son had suffered emotional and psychological abuse, the courts awarded contact between her former partner and the child, who is now a teenager.

The child no longer wanted the contact to continue but the mum needed to know what would happen if she broke the court order and what the father could do to enforce contact.

She said: “Without the help of the volunteers and staff at the Hitchin office of North Herts CAB, I don’t know what I would have done.

“I was given two appointments and each time I was given very useful advice which gave me the tools to deal with the situation.

“The CAB team were welcoming, helpful and genuinely cared and I wish there were more people like them.”

Roanne Mangham of North Herts CAB said: “Our advisers were professional and sensitive in a difficult situation This lady was one of the first to benefit from this new partnership and I’m very excited to see it in action.”

Find out more at www.northhertscab.org.uk or call 03444 111 444.