URGENT - typos in professional report. WIBU to insist they are corrected?

[PettyOrNotPetty]

Had a report done by a professional for son’s SEND Tribunal. So essentially a report that’s going to be read by a judge.

There are a few glaring typos that could have easily be corrected if he’d used a spell checker! As well as a few other things like dates that I need to tell him to correct.

Guy is highly educated, doctorate etc. 20+ years career. Went to famous public school. I’m a SAHM and picked them up immediately!

As he is doing the report for our side, I want it to look totally professional, so the quality of report is not called into question as it’s favourable to us and Education Authority will not like it at all.

DH says I can’t as he’ll be offended and he’s higher qualified than me! He’s a very nice person and gave a lot of advice so I do feel a bit bad.

Should I and if so how to word it?

Would you as a professional be offended in this circumstance?

It’s being done on legal aid but still!

I’m guessing she’s not had time to check it (SEND and legal aid...).

Def correct dates at least.

Just tell him you have spotted some typo's that need rectifying. He's not going to think you're being picky.

Is he charging you? If he's writing the report in his professional opinion, then he'd want it correcting, surely? I'd ask him to redo it.

Oh I would be all over that! There's no way I'd let it get sent off with mistakes in it.

Definitely ask him to correct it. Just say you’ve noticed a couple of things and could he alter them. So what if he’s offended! He should’ve spent the time checking it.

Fellow SEND parent here.
Definitely get them corrected, don't present anything any LA or tribunal judge that may reduce or distract from the messages you want delivered.

You're paying for professional reports-spellcheck is not a bonus it's a standard.

Best of luck x

Thank you! Emailing now. Will send directly to him rather than point them out to solicitor so she has to tell him.

Christ, why do I feel so bad! Bloody cheek of it.

He shouldn't be sending substandard work so you're doing him a professional favour to be honest - could he have sent you a draft by accident?

He will be getting fixed legal aid rates for the report, probably had to type it under time pressure and that's the result. That or he could be dyslexic - I know an eminent professional in their field who always gets stuff wrong and spell check doesn't seem to help but it doesn't change how good he is. Yes it doesn't look great but rest assured it won't impact the strength of what he says - lawyers are used to seeing it. It only impacts it if the typo is significant i.e. wrong word used in error which changes the meaning of the sentence or dates are wrong so I'd get those sorts of things changed.

I wouldn't hesitate.
It's a professional report, not a Facebook post.

I knew it would be in relation to that area. Every EHCP I've had for mine has made me ragey. So sloppy.

Definitely get it changed - I couldn't send it in with spelling mistakes......

Yes, don't feel bad about getting it changed. How unprofessional. I wonder how some well-paid people ever got their jobs in the first place! Not everyone finds spelling easy but there's no excuse nowadays with spell-check etc.

Bad spelling from a professional says 'I couldn't really be bothered' and I'd wonder about their standards in other things.

I wouldn’t be remotely offended at somebody pointing out a typo.

Yes, it's perfectly reasonable to ask for the mistakes to be corrected.

FWIW, I write/edit copy for a living and you would be amazed at how many people with doctorates and a public school and/or Oxbridge education are terrible writers. There's also sometimes an element of over-confidence there - some people are so used to being told how brilliant and well-educated they are that they simply assume their writing is perfect and therefore don't check for mistakes. I regularly have to correct (and sometimes completely rewrite) work that's been written by an eminent professor with a knighthood, and he never learns from his errors either.