For professionals › Common questions for solicitors
Common questions for solicitors
For solicitors and law firms who act for survivors of abuse. Short answers about who we are, membership, the Legal Directory and what “Verified” means, with links to fuller pages. Membership is being designed and is not open yet.Solicitor membership and the Legal Directory are open; our training is still being designed.
Looking for support for yourself? Our Support Directory lists helplines and organisations you can contact directly.
These answers set out what Abuse Support Network has decided so far. Where something is still planned, we say so. We last reviewed them on 6 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.
About us
What is Abuse Support Network?
We are an information service for survivors of abuse. We explain, in plain English, the help and the routes to justice that exist, and we point people to organisations they can contact themselves. We are not a helpline, a counselling service or a law firm.
For professionals, we are designing membership, directories and training. See what is planned.
For professionals, our Legal Directory is open to solicitors and law firms. Membership for other professionals, our other directories and our training are still being designed. See what is open and what is planned.
Is any of this open yet?
No. Membership, the directories and our training are being designed, and none of them is open yet.
Solicitor membership and the Legal Directory are open: solicitors and law firms can apply to join. Expert, training provider, and therapist and support professional membership, the Expert and Training Directories, and our training are not open yet.
Membership
Who can join?
Solicitor membership is for solicitors and law firms who act for survivors of abuse in claims for compensation. It is for any regulated firm that does this work.
Read about membership, and more questions about solicitor membership.
What does a member get?
Solicitor membership is planned to include:
- a listing in our Legal Directory, showing your own contact details, so people contact you directly;
- our training: webinars, and recordings you can watch later;
- “Verified” on your listing, once we have checked and accepted your firm;
- our newsletter for professionals.
Membership gives your firm:
- a listing in the Legal Directory, showing your firm’s own website, phone number and email address, so people contact you directly;
- a firm portal, where you keep your listing up to date, submit articles for review, raise support tickets, and see delayed, aggregate figures on how often your card was seen and its contact links used. The figures never identify any visitor, and they are not a count of enquiries.
We also plan to add training for members and a newsletter for professionals. They are being designed.
Will membership bring us cases?
Membership is not a promise of work. We don’t promise any member referrals, enquiries or cases. Survivors choose who to contact, and they contact members themselves. We are never paid for a case.
Can we join today?
Not yet. Solicitor membership is not open, so you can’t apply today. See how applying will work.
Yes. Solicitors and law firms can apply now: apply to join the Legal Directory. We check every application by hand.
Your listing in the Legal Directory
What is the Legal Directory?
It will list solicitors and law firms who act for survivors of abuse, wherever those survivors live in the UK. It is being designed, and no solicitors are listed yet. See the Legal Directory.
It lists solicitors and law firms who act for survivors of abuse. It shows only firms we have checked and approved, in alphabetical order, and no firm can pay for a higher place. Open the Legal Directory.
What will our listing show?
Every listing will show the firm’s own contact details and exactly what we checked. Read more questions about your listing.
Your card shows your firm’s own website, phone number and email address, and people contact you directly. There is no separate profile page. We review your listing before it goes live, and we review later changes too; your last approved listing stays live meanwhile. Each card says “Verified firm”, because we check every firm by hand before it is listed. Read more questions about your listing.
How will survivors reach us?
Survivors contact members directly, using the member’s own details. We never ask for a survivor’s story.
Will you pass survivors’ details to us?
No. We never ask for a survivor’s story, and we don’t pass survivors’ details to anyone.
What “Verified” means
What does “Verified” mean?
It will mean that our staff have checked your firm by hand and accepted it. When the Legal Directory opens, every firm in it will show as “Verified firm”.
It means our staff have checked your firm by hand and accepted it. Every firm in our Legal Directory shows as “Verified firm”.
What will you check for a law firm?
We will check every application by hand. What we check is still being decided. It is planned to cover who the firm is, its regulator’s public record, its contact details and any connection to us. For a law firm, it is also planned to cover that the firm does abuse claim work, and that each solicitor named on the listing appears on their regulator’s public record.We check every application by hand before we approve it, and we review every listing before it goes live. Our staff check who the firm is and its contact details against public records, such as its regulator’s register or Companies House, and they may contact the firm directly. We keep a record of how we checked each firm.
Does “Verified” say our work is good?
No. It is not a quality rating. It says that we checked your firm and accepted it, not that we vouch for its work.
Can a firm pay to skip a check?
No. Nobody can pay to skip a check. Nor will any firm be able to pay for a higher place in the Legal Directory.Nor can any firm pay for a higher place in the Legal Directory: firms are listed in alphabetical order.
What happens each year?
We plan to go through the checklist again each year. If a member no longer meets it, we will tell them and give them time to put it right. If they don’t, the listing will come down until they do.
Each year, your firm confirms that its listing is still accurate, and we can hide or suspend a listing. If a firm no longer meets our checks, we plan to tell it and give it time to put things right; if it doesn’t, the listing comes down until it does.
Applying
How will applying work?
You will apply online, with your firm’s details. We will check every application by hand, and then approve it, ask you questions or decline it. If we approve it, you will get a secure email link to set your own password. You then sign in and complete your listing, and we review it before it goes live.
See how applying will work, and more questions about applying.
How does applying work?
You apply online: apply to join the Legal Directory. No account is created when you apply. We check every application by hand, and then approve it, ask you questions or decline it; if we decline it, we send you a message. If we approve it, you get a secure email link to set your own password. Passwords are never emailed. You then sign in and complete your listing, which we review before it goes live.
More questions about applying.
What should we have ready?
The application form will ask for the name of the person applying, your firm’s name, a work email address, a phone number and your website. An SRA number will be optional. Once we approve your application, your listing will need your public details, and at least one region and one type of claim.
The application form asks for the name of the person applying, your firm’s name, a work email address, a phone number and your website. An SRA number is optional. Once we approve your application, your listing needs your public details, and at least one region and one type of claim.
Training and events
What training is planned?
- Webinars. Short online sessions on abuse claims, survivors’ needs and good practice, planned monthly once training opens.
- Courses. Longer courses on abuse claims, trauma-informed practice and working with survivors.
- Conferences and events. Events where solicitors, experts and support organisations can meet and learn from each other.
Nothing is scheduled yet. We plan to include webinars, and recordings you can watch later, in membership. Our Training Directory will also list webinars, courses and events run by other providers.
Read more questions about training and events.
Medical experts
Can we find a medical expert through Abuse Support Network?
Not yet. The Expert Directory is being designed, and no experts are listed yet. It will list medical experts who work on abuse claims, with exactly what we checked about each one.
See the Expert Directory, and more questions about medical experts.
How will you protect an expert’s independence?
An expert’s job is to help the court, not to take a side. In civil claims in England and Wales, the Civil Procedure Rules say: “It is the duty of experts to help the court on matters within their expertise. This duty overrides any obligation to the person from whom experts have received instructions or by whom they are paid.” (Part 35, rule 35.3). Scotland and Northern Ireland have equivalent duties, which our medical experts questions set out.
Expert membership is being designed to respect that duty. Experts never pay us for cases or instructions.
Survivors and this site
What does the site tell survivors about claims?
Our guides explain civil claims, criminal injuries compensation, redress schemes and the criminal process in plain English, for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. We give information, not legal or medical advice, and we can’t take on anyone’s case.
Our page Questions to ask a solicitor is a list a survivor can take with them when they first speak to a firm.
Read what we tell survivors about the law: a summary for solicitors.
How do you check what the site says?
Every fact on this site is checked at its source, and we show when we last checked it. Read how we check facts.
Something on the site looks wrong. What should we do?
Please email us at info@abusesupportnetwork.org.uk. We’ll check it again at its source and correct it. See if something on this site is wrong.
What happens if someone has a concern about a member firm?
Depending on the concern, the right place to take it is the firm itself, a complaints body or the regulator, and the routes differ in each part of the UK. In England and Wales, complain to the firm first; the Legal Ombudsman can then look at the service, and serious misconduct can be reported to the SRA. In Scotland, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission deals with complaints about lawyers. In Northern Ireland, the Solicitors Complaints Committee deals with the service a solicitor provided, and the Law Society of Northern Ireland with professional conduct.
More questions, by topic
More questions and answers, one topic at a time.
Solicitor membership
Who membership is for, what it includes and what it does not promise.
Read the questions →Your Legal Directory listing
What a listing shows, how people contact your firm, and how changes are handled.
Read the questions →Applying to join
How applying works, what to have ready and what happens after you apply.
Read the questions →Training, webinars and events
The training we plan, how it fits with membership, and how the Training Directory will work.
Read the questions →Medical experts and expert evidence
The Expert Directory, the checks we plan, and an expert’s duty to the court in each part of the UK.
Read the questions →What we tell survivors about the law
The checked facts our guides give survivors, nation by nation: a summary for solicitors.
Read the summary →Thinking about membership? See how it will work, and what it will and won’t include.Act for survivors of abuse? Apply to join our Legal Directory. We check every application by hand.
See how membership works Apply to join