UK Legal Advice

[Kyuuketsuki]

OK,

Where do I go for free legal advice (I'm thinking some kind of online forum or a place I can go ask a question online and get an answer back)?

It's nothing serious, just something that bugs the hell out of me so I'll explain because someone might know the answer here anyway.

I travel by train to work each day and I have an annual ticket ... at the stations they have auto-ticket-checking gates but these necessitate me taking out my cardboard ticket and shoving it through the machine which takes time, risks loss of said ticket (try to pick up a ticket you've dropped with several hundred people trying to get past you the way commuters do). The machines sometimes go wrong but mostly it just bugs me that by the time I am a couple of months in my ticket is getting dog-eared and won't go through the machines properly. I'm a big (not fat but defo on the "porky" side) so if I'm carrying two bags (which I sometimes do ... my own sh** and a work portable) it can be a bit difficult to get through the relatively narrow channels (underground ones are better in that respect but they also have automatic wide gates and a ticket system you don't have to remove tickets for ... I just touch my wallet, with oyster card inside, to the machine and I'm through).

Naturally enough, on BR, I'm opportunistic ... if someone goes through the access gate (not the machine), I'll go though that showing my ticket without having to take it out of the wallet. No problem there but on the odd occasion I get stroppy-guard who will let the person through with whatever he/she can't get through the auto-gates and then stop passengers (in this case me) following through. This irritates me ... big surprise!

Now I know BR has the legal right (transport by-laws I believe) to demand to see your ticket but I don't believe they have the right to force a passenger through the auto-gates and I got slight confirmation when that happened to me several months back and I said to the guard that I understood he had the right to check my ticket but I didn't believe he had the right to force me through the auto-gate (especially if his gate was open) and he agreed (but he may have simply been backing down before Mr. Angry of Faversham). This morning something similar happened again ... hundreds of passengers piling up to get through at Victoria, guy with bags so gate is opened and other passengers then started to use that gate but the guard tried to shut the gate and force the passengers back to the auto-gates.  

So I decided to find out what my legal rights were.

Opinions welcome (and yeah I know I'm being a bit of a dick over this, it's just one of those things) and if anyone knows of any forums that handle UK legal advice I'd like to know ... I've other questions anyway.

Kyu

[karadan]

Try the citizens advice bureau. They've helped me several times in the past for legal advice on various issues. It's free and they are very helpful and thorough.