Esbjerg Retshjælp

Esbjerg Retshjælp is a volunteer association providing free legal advice to private individuals. The advice is given by qualified lawyers at Esbjerg main library — and the website’s most important job is to get people there with confidence.

The audience is people under pressure: a dismissal, a rent dispute, a divorce. They should not have to spend energy decoding a website. Everything on the site is therefore built around a single question: what do I do now?

Three answers before you scroll

At the top of the front page, visitors get the three facts that decide whether this service is for them: the advice is free, it is only for private individuals, and it is given by qualified lawyers. No caveats, no legal jargon.

Address, email, and the booking link sit fixed at the top of every page — a visitor who has reached a decision should not have to hunt for the next step.

Opening hours and booking at the centre

For a walk-in legal aid service, opening hours are the core of the whole operation. They are therefore stated clearly on the front page rather than hidden on a subpage — together with the practicalities: where in the library to find them, that first-time enquiries require a personal visit, and that you are welcome to join the queue if your need is urgent.

Appointments are handled in an external booking system. The site points there clearly from several places instead of trying to reproduce the system itself.

Easy to run for volunteers

Holiday closures, changed opening hours, and cancellations must be announceable immediately — including by a volunteer who does not work with the web day to day. The large notice at the top of the front page can therefore be edited directly, without anyone touching the layout.

The solution is built in WordPress, owned by the association itself, and kept simple enough to be taken over by others. Those are the choices that matter most for an organisation run by volunteers.