Mind's legal team
As well as supporting Mind's policy and campaigning work, Mind's legal team:
- Produces and reviews legal information for adults and young people
- Represents Mind in legal cases that may improve the law for people with mental health problems
- Publishes legal articles on mental health law
- Offers legal information and advice through our Legal Line in key areas:
- the Mental Health Act (being sectioned)
- mental capacity
- community care
- discrimination related to mental health
- housing issues related to mental health
Contact the Legal line on 0300 466 6463
The Legal Line cannot give you information on welfare benefits, housing, criminal law or clinical negligence.
We have separate helplines that may be able to support you with these issues.
Our casework
We do not represent individuals bringing claims or applications to a court or tribunal. If you need information or support for these areas, please call the Legal line.
If you need a solicitor, details of where to seek specialist advice can be obtained from either the Law Society or Civil Legal Advice. You could also contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau, or there may be a Law Centre in your area that could help.
If you have a case in court, we may be able to support your claim by ‘intervening’ or providing evidence. We can only support cases in this way where:
- They might lead to significant change in the law
- We have relevant evidence to bring
- We have the expertise and resources.
Only certain courts are able to set a precedent and change the law, therefore we cannot support cases being heard in the County Court or Tribunal. We would consider supporting cases in Appeal Tribunal, High Court, Court of Appeal or Supreme Court.
If you think you have a case that we may be interested in, please contact us at [email protected]. We will need to see relevant court papers, particularly the grounds of claim and defence.
Things we're looking into
Here are some of the legal issues we are working on at the moment. We would like to hear from anyone with experience of these problems. We may be able to refer you to a legal advisor if you have a case similar to the issues below, but have not yet instructed a solicitor.
Please contact us if any of the following apply to you:
- Race or other types of discrimination within the mental health system
- Parents or caregivers being prosecuted or given a financial penalty because their child is unable to attend school because of their mental health
- Care arrangements which give rise to a deprivation of liberty for children the age of 16, where parental consent is relied on to authorise the deprivation
Sponsor our Legal line
With your help, we can give legal advice and information on mental health related law to anyone who needs it.
