Anyone paid for advice to win school appeals?

[Rubels]

And if so was it worth it??

I appealed at the same time as a friend. She knew a top barrister who helped her for free. We both lost! Her case was stronger than mine, and he said that if they had been in court, they would definitely have won. But the appeals panel in my area rejected every single appeal that year, so in the end it made no difference.

The comment by the barrister is actually quite pertinent. Yes in court they may well have won because the level of proof is beyond reasonable doubt whereas at an admission appeal it is who has the best case. That is one of the problems with lawyers at admission appeals they try and score lots of little points of law which in a trial can add up to reasonable doubt, in an admission appeal they add up to nothing.

Thanks for the replies. As usual, they all make sense.

We did this for a junior school appeal. DH wanted to be as prepared as possible and was more keen than I. I think it helped in that we knew what to expect, what questions were likely to be asked. We did a 'mock appeal' on the phone and it brought up a couple of weakness in our argument. In the end we won our appeal but the reason was on medical grounds (mine not DS) and this was something our paid consultant hadn't given much weight to.