Resolution form
Part 1:
Mr. Nick Laird
EAD Solicitors
Prospect House
Colombus Quay
Liverpool
L3 4DB
Solicitors reference: I called your office last week (4/7), and was informed that you
were the person in the company that dealt with complaints.
My name:
Mr. Erik Ribsskog
Flat 3
5 Leather Lane
Liverpool
L2 2AE
Phone-number: 0151 236 3298.
Mobile: 0775 834 9954.
Part 2:
The person dealing with my case is or was:
I wasn’t given the name of the Duty Solicitor that was supposed to meet me at the
Citizens Advice Bureau.
The person from your company that I spoke with on the phone was Mr. Michael Reiner.
My complaint is:
1. I think that the EAD, when they cancelled the Duty Solicitors meeting at the
CAB (Dale Street, Liverpool), on 5/4/07, should have taken the initative to set
up a new meeting with me, to replace the meeting that had been canceled.
They didn’t want to set up a new meeting, even if I asked them about the
possiblity of them doing this, when I called their office, explained the matter,
and got to speak with their representativ Michael Reiner on 5/4.
I think that the usual thing to do when one have to cancel a meeting,
like this duty solicitor meeting, would be to set up a new meeting
to replace the meeting that was canceled.
And I think that it’s unacceptable that this wasn’t even offered.
Complaint 1: I would like to complain about the EAD refusing to set up
a new duty solicitor meeting after the inital meeting was canceled (by
themselves).
2. Michael Reiner informed me on the phone when I called the EAD
company on 5/4, that EAD didn’t help members of the public with
calculating if they are eligable for legal aid in (non union) employment-
cases.
I don’t think that the EAD should have agreed with the CAB to meet
me in a duty solicitor meeting, to help me calculate if I was eligable
for recieveing legal-aid, if this is a work-task that EAD doesn’t do.
It makes no sence that they should agree with the CAB to help me
calculate if I’m eligable for legal-aid, and then when I call them after
they have canceled the meeting, then they tell me that they don’t
do this type of work-task at all.
It makes no sense that they should agree with the CAB to do a work-
task they dont do.
I don’t think it’s acceptable for a solicotors firm to act like this.
Complaint 2 A.: I would like to complain about the EAD solicitors
firm first agreeing to help me, and then refusing this.
Complaint 2 B: I would like to complain about the EAD agreeing
to to do a work-task they don’t do (Like Reiner explained, that
they didn’t help people with calculating if they are eligable for
recieving legal-aid in individual employment-cases).
3. I think the EAD should have informed me on why they canceled
the meeting.
This was not informed to me by eighter the CAB or the EAD when I
called the EAD later.
I don’t remember if I asked them a direct question about this, but I
think it’s a natural thing to do when one cancel a scheduled meeting
like this.
Complaint 3: I would like to complain about that the EAD didn’t
inform me of the reason for why they canceled the duty solicitor
meeting on the CAB 5/4.
4. I think the EAD should have informed me about the name of the
duty solicitor that was supposed to meet me.
I asked the CAB twice about the name of the solicitor (because I
reckoned that this was my contact with EAD, so it would be very
usefull for me to know this). But the CAB couldn’t tell me who
it was, even if I asked them twice. (First when I was there for
the meeting that was canceled, and secondly when I called the
CAB a bit later that day, to get the right phonenumber for the EAD).
When I called EAD later the same day, and got to speak with Reiner,
I again asked who the dury solicitor that I was supposed to meet
at the CAB was, but Reiner didn’t give me the duty solicitors name.
I think that if the duty solicitor cancels the meeting, and agrees with
the CAB that I could instead call the EAD and get advice from them
over the phone, then he should leave his name with the CAB, and
tell them to give me the his name when I show up for the meeting,
so that I know who to ask for when I call the EAD.
When I called the EAD I got transfered a bit around from person
to person, before I got to speak with Reiner. I think I was speaking
with eighter two or three other people before I got to speak with
Reiner.
That one don’t know who to ask for, and that one have to explain
about the case several times to several people, could maybe lead
to that one gets a bit stressed, and maybe loses a bit of the focus
that one normally would have had on the case, if one had been
transfered directly to the right person.
So I think that this also added to the general level of unproffesionalism
that it seemed to me was quite characteristic to the way the EAD (and
the CAB) handled the meeting on 5/4. So even if it sounds a bit stupid
maybe, I think I’ll also add a complaint about that I wasn’t given the
duty solicitors name by the EAD (eighter directly or through the CAB).
Complaint 4: I would like to complain about that the EAD didn’t
inform me about the name of the duty solicitor that was supposed
to meet me, even if I asked both the EAD (Reiner) and the CAB
about this.
5. I think that the EAD shouldn’t have adviced me on such a complicated
case over the phone.
The EAD only wanted to help me over the phone, and therefore a
misunderstanding happened regard what type of case it was.
Since we only discussed it over the phone, and the EAD didnt get to see
the documents that belonged to the case, and I answered that it was an
employement-case when Reiner asked me, because this was what the
police had told me that it was.
If the EAD had agreed to meet me, they would have seen that it was,
(like the Morecroft solicitor told me on 11/4), that it also was an
harassment-case.
So, because of this misunderstanding, Reiner on the phone, told me that
the case had only got a three month ‘time-limit’, and that since it had
passed more than three months since the last incident in the case,
Reiner said that the three month ‘time-limit’ for the case had ‘expired’,
and that there really wasn’t much hope regarding getting a case like
this through the justice-system, due to the three month ‘time-limit’ having
expired.
But, when I told this to the solicitor from Morecrofts on 11/4, the solicitor
told me that the case was also an harassment-case, and that it therefore
had a longer ‘time-limit’ than three months.
I think that, if EAD had done their job properly, then they would have
read through the cases documents, and also come to the same
conclusion.
Therefore I think that it was a bit irresponsible to give advice about this
over the phone. The way Reiner explaned it, was that it wasn’t really much
hope for me to get any progress on the case due to the time-limit problem,
so it sounded on him like that it wasn’t really worth the bother for me to
be using more time on trying to get help with the case.
So, if they do their advice-job in this way, I think it could lead to members
of the public being given wrong information (in the same way I was given
by Reiner on 5/4), which could lead to perfectly good cases being
given up by the person contacting them for advice.
And one could also think of many other types of misunderstandings that
could happen due to them doing their duty soliciting work and
legal-advice over the phone instead of in meetings, like one would think
would be more practical when it comes to legal-cases, that I reckon often
can be quite complicated.
Complaint 5A: I would like to complain about that the EAD gave me wrong
advice on the phone on 5/4 about the ‘time-limit’ for the case I had agreed
to meet them about in a duty solicitor meeting at the CAB (To get help
from them to see if I was eligable to recieve legal-aid for the case).
Complaint 5B: I would like to complain about the EAD giving advice on
the phone about cases that they have initialy agreed on to advice about
in meetings. Reiner from EAD said in the phone-call on 5/4 that one
needs to know the details of the case to see if someone are eligable for
legal-aid.
I think that if he didn’t know the details of the case, then he shouldn’t
advice on how long ‘time-limit’ there is for the case eighter.
I think this was an unaceptable way for them to do their duty solicitor
job. (Which I think this must be called, since they had canceled
the duty solicitor meeting, and I think the EAD and the CAB must
have agreed on that it was ok for me to call them for advice instead,
since the CAB adviced me to do this.)
And even if one can’t call it a duty solicitor job, for some reason that
I’m not aware of, then I still think it’s unaceptable of them to give advice
on how long ‘time-limit’ there is for a case, without knowing the details
of the case.
6. If one goes to the EAD web-page on the internet, on the url:
http://www.eadsolicitors.co.uk/employment/, it says that ‘EAD advices
on all aspects of employement law work for trade unions, union members
and individual workers’.
I don’t think the EAD should put it on their web-site that they advice on
all aspects of employement law for individual workers, when they don’t
individual workers at all, like Reiner said in the phone-call on 5/4.
He said that they only dealt with employment-cases that were trade-
union cases, and that this was the reason that they couldn’t help me
with calculating if I was eligable for legal aid.
Also, the fact that they agreed with the CAB to meet me on 5/4, to
help me calculate if I was eligable for recieving legal-aid, fits with what
they write on the web-page, that they really help individual workers
with things like this.
So it’s a bit unclear to me if the information on their web-page is wrong,
or if the information I was given by Reiner in the phone-call on 5/4 was
wrong.
So I think I’ll complain about that I have recieved contradicting information,
and then someone who are more experts on this can hopefully have a
look at it, and try to find out what these, to me, seemingly contradicting
statements are due to.
Complaint 6: I’d like to complain about that the information on the EAD
webpage says that the EAD advices individual workers in employement
cases, whereas Mr. Reiner in the phone-call on 5/4 informed me that
EAD only gave advice about employement-cases when these cases
were trade-union cases.
Part 3
I am happy for you to deal with my complaint in writing.
I would like the following to sort out my complaint:
The most important thing to me, is to try to find a solution on how to get some
progress on the case, so that it is brought through the justice-system in an
appropriate way.
I think the complaint should be dealt with by you appropriately.
I’ve lost a bit of confidence in your company due to what happened on 5/4, so
I would like to see how your company deals with this complaint, before I decide
how I should go further with this.