A legal services app which already has 1.7m subscribers in north America is coming to the UK on a trial basis.

Developer LegalShield has unveiled the LegalDefence app and will work alongside national firm Slater and Gordon to test the service in Plymouth. The company claims the service represents a ‘hotline to your lawyer’.

The product offers legal advice and support for £24 a month, covering legal matters from disputes with landlords and neighbours to driving and parking offences.

The company pledges that customers can tap into advice 24 hours a day from a qualified legal adviser through their smartphone, access self-help legal documents and template letters, and benefit from correspondence produced by a lawyer.

The service include discounts on wills, conveyancing and re-mortgaging, family and employment matters.

Mike Roberts, managing director of LegalShield in the UK, said: ‘Our app is all about making legal services for consumers affordable, accessible and accountable. By harnessing the power of technology and combining it with high level legal expertise from Slater and Gordon, we are putting legal support into the hands of anyone, and everyone knows how much they are paying.’

Additional features include the ability for a member to send a photograph of intended prosecution to their lawyer in the event of a driving offence, and an AI-powered chatbot called 'Gordon' to answer legal questions.

Membership extends to spouses and partners, as well as dependent children under 16 and children in full time education under 23 who live at the same residence.

Martyn Beauchamp, chief customer officer at Slater and Gordon, said: 'Innovating through technology and progressive partnerships is a key part of our strategy to transform the way UK customers use legal services. Our partnership with LegalShield increases access to justice at a fair price and means we can offer UK customers an unrivalled level of choice and convenience – all from the palm of their hand.'

LegalShield was founded in Oklahoma in 1972 and in its former guise of Pre-Paid Legal Service in the 1990s traded on the American and New York stock exchanges. Today it operates as a privately held business.