News/Blog

We are adjusting our legal helpline to support more women living with abuse

From January 2021, we are increasing the capacity of our helpline so more women can contact us for legal advice and information. To do this, we are making some adjustments.

Our Thursday helpline will now become available to women living with any form of abuse or violence (including sexual harassment). This means we will no longer offer a specific sexual harassment helpline.

Instead, women affected by sexual harassment will be able to call our helpline during any of its opening times.

This means women won’t have to wait until a Thursday to contact us with questions about a sexual harassment case.

Our specialist sexual harassment solicitor will also be able to consider taking on cases for legal representation and she will be offering legal appointments very soon.

What are the reasons for this adjustment?

Since the pandemic started, our legal helpline has received more calls than ever, and many women have told us they have been struggling to get through to our solicitors. The increase in calls is due to the spike in abuse and violence against women that we have seen since lockdown measures were introduced.

We know that the pandemic is bringing huge challenges for women in Scotland, and we believe adjusting our helpline is necessary to better respond to the current crisis.

We are also considering other ways in which we can increase our capacity for legal advice and information, and we will release more details in the coming months.

For now, the adjustments mean that our legal helpline will be available Monday to Friday for women experiencing any form of abuse. You can find our helpline opening times here.