Synopsis

In this short black-and-white interview video, two Black female students of the Waltham Forest College pre-nursing course, Sonya and Pauline, ask Penny Wood from the West Stepney Law Centre about Legal Aid. Wood explains that the Law Centre acts on behalf of people in matters of housing, employment, and social security, as well as criminal law, and acts for free for anyone from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets depending on their income.

Wood also explains how the Law Centre educates residents on their legal rights, the difference between the Juvenile, Magistrate and Crown courts, and how the Law Centre works with the probation services. The interview offers a snapshot of Law Centres and Legal Aid in the mid to late 1970s, an area of policy that has been in constant flux since it was established with the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949.