This summer our activities have included:
- Representing a client in family court proceedings about contact arrangements concerning our client’s children after a relationship breakdown
- Attending a central London County Court (with a law student) for a trial in a civil case (transferred from Medway County Court). At a hearing the Judge adjourned the trial pending an appeal by the other party against a previous order striking out part of the claim
- Preparing for a hearing in the Upper Tribunal for permission to appeal against a refusal of a disability benefit
- Preparing for a hearing where we represent young adults in a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975
- Attending case management hearings for cases at the Employment Tribunal
- Achieving a successful outcome for a homeless man (a severely disabled EU national), his son and his granddaughter – we successfully made representations in seeking a review against a local authority’s decision that there was no duty to house them. Our client and his family have now been housed and remain together as a family unit (the granddaughter would have been taken into care if the family had not been housed)
- Preparing submissions on a case concerning public rights of way
- Achieving successful outcomes in immigration cases – including: the grant of a five-year residence permit to a stateless client; and the grant of indefinite leave to a woman who had incorrectly been granted temporary leave (plus a full refund of additional fees taken from her)
- Preparing a judicial review to challenge the potential removal of a client who cares for her disabled British husband
- Assisting young unaccompanied asylum seekers to challenge refusals of their asylum claims (one granted permission before the Upper Tribunal, one assisted to submit a fresh asylum claim)
- Preparing for an appeal to challenge the refusal of entry clearance to our settled client’s daughter
- Preparing a Working Tax Credits case for the Tribunal – an important test case about what it means to work 16 hours per week
- Winning £25k in backdated benefits (at the enhanced rate) for each of two clients whose PIP (Personal Independence Payment) appeals were originally turned down completely
- Preparing an appeal for a father who incurred parking fines whilst treating his child in the car for a medical emergency
- Achieving a successful outcome for a client who is the stateless partner of an EU national – we got the UK to accept that our client is allowed to be in the UK as the spouse of his Finnish wife. However, the client has no travel documents and is unable to accompany his wife on a trip to visit relatives in Finland. We are reviewing the case and may issue proceedings in the High Court on the basis this is a breach of our client’s EU freedom of rights
- Representing tenants who were defending a claim made by their landlord for more than £10k in legal costs
- Challenging the suspension of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) in 2006 for a severely-disabled woman in her forties who lives in a care home. The Department for Work and Pensions stopped DLA for our client as they deem the care home to be a hospital. If our challenge is successful, our client and her elderly mother will receive more than £170K in backdated benefits