tribunal - how much did your legal representation cost?

[bjkmummy]

having a major wobble - off to tribunal in feb - LA due to respond next week. son in school part time, current school cannot meet his needs, evidence is overwhelming. L got their own OT report which is worse than ours - their only evidence is the outreach person who only saw himafter they knew we were going to tribunal and she has wrote he is absolutely fine even though the next day their OT went in and wrote a damning report - did he mysteriously just decline over night? they got his curret teacher to say he was 'fine' head then got teacher to write a letter rebutting it plus the head has also wrote and rebutted it as well.

anyway the people her ewho run a early support meetings have emailed me to say they can no longer help us as we are going to tribunal and the LA have got legal representation - this is the first we have heard that they have a solicitor :-( really hoped they would see sense and agree to our new school. they have put in writing he needs a new school but then done nothing to try and implement it - they are trying now to make the school that cannot meet his needs 'fit' the statement is a wooly as a sheep and not a single thing is quantified or specified - i felt quite hopefull that they would agree to the placement we want but that is looking very unlikely now.

so my question is - how much does legal representation cost? i doubt we would be able to afford it what with the independent report cost plus the cost of calling them as witnesses and we wont qualify for legal aid :-(

[StarlightMcKenzie]

try ipsea. SOS SEN and if they can't ask them who can?

[StarlightMcKenzie]

who is the solicitor?

[Delalakis]

I think the answer is - it depends! Particularly since your tribunal is under way so the solicitor wouldn't have to do as much work as if they were starting from the beginning. But it depends in part whether the appeal is dealt with by a lawyer, trainee or paralegal, how senior they are, whether the case settles without a hearing, whether you have a barrister at the hearing, etc etc. Probably best to ring round and ask. Starlight has previously posted this link - www.chambersandpartners.com/UK/Editorial/45186 - which seems a good starting point.

[bjkmummy]

i dont know who the solicitor is - when we went to judical review last year with our elder son they used another LA solicitor so obviously dont have an in house legal team as we are a small county. my data information requestion deadline is next tues as well and its been silence over that as well then with the response due on the weds going to be a very stressful week. i guess i will find out who it is next week. i know when my friend went to tribunal a few years ago they called a barrister to represent them - my friend did win though :-)

[Delalakis]

Which LA are you? There's an independent solicitor who regularly works for certain LAs and if you're one of them we may be able to give some pointers.

[bjkmummy]

im the smallest one in england - begins with a R

[AgnesDiPesto]

We used this advocate and was excellent. Fees are on website. And you can pick and choose what you use them for e.g. do most of prep yourself and just use them to check things or do advocacy on the day.

Also look on specialneedsjungle blog there was a barrister offering free legal advice on there if you go back through the posts.

I would say if you have to choose bring the experts and do without the rep, most of these things come down to expert evidence and they usually don't want to hear from the parent that much on the day