Settlement deadline - advice please?

[rosierose12]

I have a settlement letter from the organisation and the deadline for me to accept is today. However, I have contacted the Ombudsman to raise a query following legal advice, and despite me contacting in good time, they only responded on Friday following a few chaser calls. Whilst they say it is unlikely they will reopen my case, it has been referred and they say I'm unlikely to hear until a few weeks have passed. I did ask in my message to know what happens to settlement date the organisation have given for me to respond by and they haven't included this in their response, I emailed the organisation separately to notify them of the escalation and to query the date but again haven't had a response.

I hadn't wanted to accept the settlement as I'm challenging a couple of the points it's made on but I also don't want to lose the offer. Can anyone advise on what I can do please?

It depends on the situation and the settlement, if it’s a settlement with an end date in some circumstances that is just final, you either accept or decline, or it expires and you lose it. You can then go back and ask to renegotiate but that initial offer will be off the table at that point and you can discuss another but it may well be worse terms.

That's what I'm concerned about and why I asked the ombudsman to advise but without this, I worry I'll lose it or have to accept when I've asked them to reconsider their closing comments. Can I accept on the understanding the Ombudsman are looking into it but will this impact any future settlement that may come of this as I've accepted the initial offer so to speak? It's a higher education matter and legal advice around this is non-existent.

Which Ombudsman? (And they don't usually get legal advice)
Is it a reasonable settlement? Do you think your lawyers have screwed up? Or are you simultaneously running a case and asking the Ombudsman to handle you complaint?
It's all bit vague.

I haven't expected, or expect them to give legal advice. I've been seeking that externally but it doesn't exist for higher education matters.

Not really a significant amount, it doesn't cover the costs associated with their mistakes but apparently it wouldn't do unless it was upheld in full. It was partially upheld but I wasn't aware I could respond to the closing comments of the Ombudsman, I only saw Judicial Review and comments if there was new evidence, which there isn't, only that they needed to review the evidence there and as the closing comments stated the institution recognised the error in one aspect of my complaint, and was the basis of one of the complaints I made, I have challenged this as settlement/letter makes no mention of this and compensation for this hasn't been awarded.

It's the OIA and they handle complaints once you've completed internal complaints procedures, I've not had a lawyer as quite simply, I can't afford one and they would only support once I'd paid for a review of my case. I don't mean to be vague but I'm not wanting this to be too outing as it's been a difficult process and I feel very much out of own with it.

Fair enough. My concern would be that without legal advice - regardless of the ombudsman's comments - you risk your case.

Ask yourself: What's the most you could get? What have they offered? How much would it cost and how likely would you be to win if it went to court? (And how long might it take?) Are we talking £3k or £30K?

You need to weigh these up as best you can and make your decision.
Would the ombudsman's comments speak to the "harmful act" - or simply comment on the process?

No-one can really advise without more information and it looks like what you're concerned about needs a legal professional to assess.

Best of luck OP.

The cost of it would swallow the current settlement which is under £4k. I don’t know what the most I could get is. I don’t know how to go to court, I don’t think I’d want too but the OIA say seek legal advice I think knowing it doesn’t really exist for such cases and it’s out of reach for many.
The university follow the OIA recommendations, so if the OIA recommended the case was reopened and additional recommendations made, I presume they’d follow these too.
I spoke to the Equality helpline and even they said there’s a gap in the market and they couldn’t signpost as it’s not housing/work/financial issue.

If you accept the offer, you’ve accepted their offer as is. You could try to go back later but that would be via courts at your own cost so as others have said may swallow up all of your original settlement and you could then lose.

But even if the OIA recommended the case be reopened would that guarantee that a review would get you more money?

Is the compensation based on the "alleged harm"? (Usually these things are calculated on the basis of some sort of loss - not just whether or not a wrong was committed.)

We have little or no information here OP and cannot possibly advise. Only you know whether it's worth the gamble.