SENLegal or other advocates/solicitors

[readingrecord]

Hi All, just wondering if you have any recommendations for SEN advocates/solicitors to help with EHCP. Any experience of SENLegal? I need help with EHCP AR and a friend of mine with DD17 ASD and EBSA in 6th Form needs help with rejected EHCP. Thank you.

You/your friend could consider Helen Gill, Andrew Barrowclough, Nathan Davies, Christopher McFarland or Polly Sweeney.

I don’t have personal experience, but I have heard/seen some mixed experiences with SENlegal.

I would be careful with advocates. Some are excellent, but some do more harm than good. It is an unregulated business.

Depending on what you/your friend need/how much handholding you require, you could consider a direct access barrister. Not as expensive as a solicitor, but they don’t hold your hand in the same way.

Are you sure either/both need representation? It isn’t essential. And if it is a choice between representation and independent assessments, independent assessments should always be prioritised.

@ChasingMoreSleep Thank you so much, very helpful advice. Yes, will commission private OT first, but the LA is ignoring the private EP report and not including it in the EHCP draft after the AR. They are not including the EP recommendations in F either. I have the feeling they will ignore the private OT report too when I get it. The LA OT report is now 3 years old and the LA is also ignoring my request to get an updated one. Really stuck and perhaps need some professional help to get through to them.

Grapple law (an AI app) is pretty good at guiding you through the process. Legal guidance and drafted legal letters for you to copy and send yourself are free and are generated in seconds. If the firm sends the letter (e.g. open letter or letter before action) as your legal representative, you might need to subscribe but I think you get some free. They seem to have comparable success rates than human solicitors.

You shouldn’t have to appeal, but many have to appeal to get the content of independent reports included even if they have representation for help with the AR.

Be careful with AI. It misunderstands/misrepresents legislation, invents case law and hallucinates barristers’ names. So much so an UT judgement commented on it last year.

Very expensive. Try https://educationlawexperts.co.uk

Thank you, All. Food for thought.

AI doesn't mean ChatGPT. I meant look at AI supported law firms. All big solicitors, accountancies etc now use AI agents. You can use such AI agents yourself. These agents are supervised and are only trained on vetted information, not random stuff from the internet. You can and should cross check the advise they give you, but I would do that with human advise, too.

I didn’t say AI is limited to ChatGPT. Neither did I mention random information on the internet. My comment was about AI, not just ChatGPT. As I said, even the UT commented on it. I know FTT judges have also commented on it.