Is it worth having a lawyer at the Tribunal?

[JohnDL]

Im trying to determine whether I should have a lawyer as a representative at the Tribunal. I would be interested to hear about other peoples Tribunal experiences.

 

 

My 6 year old son has ASD and we are appealing to the Tribunal in January against sections 2 and 3. He has severe learning difficulties and has the capabilities of a 3 year old.

 

Ive seen the Tribunal DVD and it looks like that, in theory, the Tribunal is inquisitorial rather than adversarial and I am wondering whether it is worth having a Lawyer represent us.

 

The Local Authoritys representative is a lawyer who appears to have dealt with hundreds of cases over the last few years on behalf of LAs.

 

I have found a Lawyer who is prepared to turn up on the day for about £3,000, and I have naturally asked him what benefits having him represent me would provide what he proposes to charge.

He states:

 

1) He would be useful for pre-Tribunal negotiations on the day

2) He would be able be able to deal with any legal issues that may arise

3) He would make sure the evidence would be put forward in best possible way

 

 

It seems that a lot of LAs just cave in after the first 10 minutes of Tribunal, so I am concerned that, whilst I want the best possible outcome for my son, having a lawyer may prove to be an extravagant waste of money that could be better spent on other things.

 

Note that I am not appealing over the choice of school, but rather the level of support and provision of Speech and Language Therapy.

 

I would therefore be very interested to hear from other people who have gone to Tribunal and their experiences whether they thought they could have done better with a lawyer, or else whether having a lawyer was worth it, and experiences of any tactics or tricks of the LA Lawyer which might have made having had a lawyer worthwhile?

Edited November 18, 2010 by call me jaded
to remove LA's lawyer's name

[call me jaded]

Sorry, erring on the side of caution and removing the lawyer's name.

 

Will respond to your post much later today with our experiences.

[Sally44]

As he is 6 years old and you are not going to seek a different placement, I think you might do better to have an independent SALT report who also comes with you at tribunal as expert witness. Inform them that there is a strong likelihood that the LEA will turn up with legal representation.

As you are not seeking a different placement I would be surprised if the LEA used their legal representative because that will cost them money too. If it is their in-house legal department then they may use them. But generally speaking, the more you are seeking in terms of professional input, therapy, and an independent placement, the more likely it is that the LEA will strongly resist the appeal simply to try to reduce the costs and funding it will entail for them to meet the provision in the Statement.

[Athena]

We had a solicitor with us at the Tribunal. The LA used a barrister to represent them. We WON! It was for Parts 2 and 3 only, for full time 1:1 in mainstream.

 

LA's are increasingly playing "hard ball"

[Sally44]

The first time I went to tribunal I did have a SALT and solicitor with me. Although we were not arguing placement that was because I had already moved my son as a 'mainstream' pupil to another LEA maintained school that receives additional funding and training for childrenw with ASD and has an autism unit. It is called "Enhanced Resource". At that time I was having to provide transport. The LEA conceded that before the tribunal and agreed to provide transport to and from school. The LEA inclusion officer turned up with the Deputy Head of his current school and the EP for that school.

I am now in the process of lodging another appeal. I have used a solicitor to try to sort it out, but the LEA have simply re-assessed and completely re-written the Statement and have not included any of my reports. I could not prevent that or refuse a re-assessment. So I have decided not to use a solicitor this time. I have the previous Statement as evidence of what he had, and I have the independent reports that I have re-submitted.

 

In your case you are aiming to get a good Statement with a baseline from which to measure progress. If you are doing that then you might need an EP and even an OT report as well so that the Statement does identify EVERY need. And then you need to measure progress against that.

 

As I understand it you are only thinking of speech therapy at the moment. Would the amount of speech therapy you are seeking offset against the £3,000+ for solicitors fees? If the speech therapy input is greater than that amount, then it might be worth using a solicitor.

 

It is a hard call. But the Panel may find in your favour without that expense, if you have his needs identified in an independent report and the SALT has been very specific about how your child should be supported in school in terms of hours of therapy input and SALT input and staffing provision in school.

 

Maybe you should wait for the SALT to carry out their assessments and see what she finds. Ask the SALT if they feel he would need an EP or OT report from how she sees him in school. And also ask her if she feels his needs can be met at his present school.

[sunflower1]

I know an excellent and highly experienced advocate who supported my case to get my AS son into a spcecialst residential school. She was so good it didn't make the tribunal. There are charges but they are a fraction of the cost of a lawyer. She is absolutely amazing. Where do you live as she covers London and SE and Oxfordshire and maybe further afield. PM me if you want her contact details

[Known]

We are going to tribunal soon for assessment. The local authority does not have any representative apart from the caseworker. Is this quite common? I have a solicitor representing me. I am surprised we are going to the tribunal stage as I would have thought the LEA would have withdrawn as they do not have any further evidence. We have submitted a lot of evidence including a private ed psych report which details all my son's needs and his difficulties. Any comments welcome.

[Sally44]

You tend to find that alot of LEAs go to tribunal just to test to see if the parents turn up.

Also it puts pressure on the parent to come with expert witnesses and a solicitor. That all costs money.

I would say that as you do not feel confident in the system process that it might be useful to have a solicitor with you at this stage (if you can afford it).

But afterwards you may find yourself at further tribunals and it is always worth going, even if you do not have a solicitor with you.

It is all about money. It is worth the LEA going to tribunals about anything that will cost them money in the long term.

If the LEA have refused to assess and at tribunal the panel says that they have to assess, then the LEA must do that. However there is no guarantee that they will then issue a Statement. They may then issue a Note in Lieu and you would have to go back to tribunal again.

 

I am not trying to put you off. But just to realise that when you have a child with an SEN you can end up at tribunal on a regular basis and simply on cost alone you cannot keep spending money on private reports and solicitors.

 

IMO the best time to use those, if you have to, is to get a really good well worded legally binding Statement to begin with as that will determine the level of professional input and the placement. And then again at transfer year to secondary school so that he again receives the right level of professional input and the right secondary placement is named in the Statement.

[lil_me]

Thankfully never had to do a tribunal as the LA seem to use it here as a very last resort and I find them very approachable

 

However I think I would be inclined to put the money towards private speech therapy

 

Quite simply there is a huge shortage of NHS speech therapists. The only way I could see someone getting above average speech therapy input is via it being delivered in school by an assistant, an Lsa or similar. The LA (no longer called LEAs) will not insist a school provides something - you must remember the statement says what schools need to provide but doesn't mean they will as the LA can't force them - that isn't available