Do Citizen's advice give detailed advice?

southerly

I am going to be claiming unfair dismissal against my ex employer. I just wondered given their recent funding cuts (my local CAB is now open 4 hours only per week!) what they can actually offer. Are they able to provide detailed legal advice? I don't see how they could afford to unless it is done by volunteers. I have read all the info on their own and other websites and several legal books from the library but I am sure the process is going to be pretty daunting. I worked for a large organisation which will be well used to the procedure and will probably employ solicitors.

smileylondongal

It really depends on how busy they are however if I were in your situation I would give it a go and see how far you get. If anything, they might steer you in the right direction of someone who might be able to help or to funding that might help the legal side of things.

Good luck.

pmlindyloo

Certainly some CAB would be able to help you but, as you are probably aware, CAB differ in what they are able to offer in the way of advice and support according to the staff who work there.

Are you near to a large town/city? If it were me I would go onto the CAB website and put in your post code and find a CAB that offers an employment specialist. Of course, it is possible, you may not be eligible for help from an employment specialist as some of them are funded by the Community Legal Services and have a strict eligibilty criteria.

Any good CAB should be able to take you through the 'steps' and also refer you on to someone who can help.

Good luck!

PS Are you a member of a trade union? That should be your first port of call.

southerly

Thanks I didn't know all that. I don't live near a large town but I will give my local CAB a go, nothing to lose.

margaretclare

When I was a volunteer adviser at CAB a few years ago now, in a situation like yours we'd always recommend going to ACAS. http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1461

SarEl

And I regret to say that I wouldn't recommend going to either! Both are frequently wrong in the advice they hand out, neither can understand the complexities of employment law (not even a specialist advisior at CAB could keep up with the rate of change on the law - we lawyers have entire team of people to do this for us!). It may be better than nothing - but never take for granted what you are told or what you are told to do, is correct. We have seen far too many people on these sites wrongly advised - or worse, doing things based on wrong advice. It isn't impossible to do on your own, depending on what you are actually claiming, and at least you retain control over your own decisions. But if it is as big an organisation as you say it is they won't be employing their own solicitors - they will be employing their own barristers. They can be beaten - but you really have to be on the ball and depend on no advice you are given unless you are committed to it yourself. It's not a guarantee of winning but at least you have nobody else to blame. A good way of getting a few free opinions is to try no win no fee solicitors - the will give some general advice, but more than that, whether they are willing to take on the case (which you are not committed to agreeing) will tell you how good your chances are.

I should have added - neither give legal advice. Only a lawyer or legal professional can give legal advice! We are insured for the quality of advice we give - they are not. They are giving you opinions. You could get better opinions on here!

pmlindyloo

SarEl wrote: »

And I regret to say that I wouldn't recommend going to either! Both are frequently wrong in the advice they hand out, neither can understand the complexities of employment law (not even a specialist advisior at CAB could keep up with the rate of change on the law - we lawyers have entire team of people to do this for us!). It may be better than nothing - but never take for granted what you are told or what you are told to do, is correct. We have seen far too many people on these sites wrongly advised - or worse, doing things based on wrong advice. It isn't impossible to do on your own, depending on what you are actually claiming, and at least you retain control over your own decisions. But if it is as big an organisation as you say it is they won't be employing their own solicitors - they will be employing their own barristers. They can be beaten - but you really have to be on the ball and depend on no advice you are given unless you are committed to it yourself. It's not a guarantee of winning but at least you have nobody else to blame. A good way of getting a few free opinions is to try no win no fee solicitors - the will give some general advice, but more than that, whether they are willing to take on the case (which you are not committed to agreeing) will tell you how good your chances are.

I should have added - neither give legal advice. Only a lawyer or legal professional can give legal advice! We are insured for the quality of advice we give - they are not. They are giving you opinions. You could get better opinions on here!

I really must disagree with your 'they only give opinions'.

I have no knowledge of ACAS but I do know that CAB advisors and specialists should not be basing their advice on their opinions. CAB advisors have access to an information system that is continually updated and is based on statutory and contractual law.

I do not disagree with the advice that you have given the OP (sorry, I don't mean to sound patronising ). We have no knowledge of what the OP's claim for unfair dismissal is based on and, as you say, if his employers are a large company they will be well versed in dealing with unfair dismissal claims. I agree that the OP will need some expert and legal advice.

However, I could not let this, in my opinion, inaccurate statement go unchallenged!

ps Some large CAB also employ employment specialists who are qualified solicitors.

SarEl

Yes some CABx - and very few - retain (not employ) legal staff - but very few and not one that opens 4 hours a week! CAB are in law only giving an opinion - they cannot give legal advice and they make it clear that their advice is not legal advice (or should - it is part of their code of practice!). Their information system is basic to say the least. None of this is criticism - just fact. And I know this because I regularly support by local CAB with both training and free legal advice for clients. I have the greatest of respect for much of the work that CAB do, but as a general rule I would not suggest that anyone seek legal advice from CAB or ACAS - neither of which are equipped to deal with the potential complexiites of employment law. In the case of CAB this is because they are not specialists, have limited resources to draw upon, and those resources are limited to the most basic of employment law issues. Employment law is not often basic - it is usually complex. The OP asked for detailed legal advice - CAB cannot give detailed advice on employment matters, and they cannot give legal advice at all because they are not law professionals. Legal advice is a specific term - in relation to legal advice their advice is opinion. Hopefully, but not always, informed opinion. To claim this is legal advice would be in breach of their policies and their indemnity insurance.

In the case of ACAS, well they have no excuse. Whilst they cannot and never have been able to give legal advice, over the past few years their advice has gone from excellent to crap. With only the occasional, and surprising, bright shining star of good advice. The problem is that if you don't know the answer already, you can't tell the difference.

And I did not say "they only give opinions" - I said that they are giving to opinions - that being a factual statement of law. They are not permitted to give legal advice.

teeni

Many CAB hold legal service commission contracts to provide legal advice, in those cases they are no different to any other firm of solicitors and therefore it is wrong to say you should never go to see one for employment advice or they are not allowed to give legal advice only an opinon.

The important thing to check whether they hold a contract or not and even if they dont they can give inital advice and refer to a suitable expert.

southerly

SarEl wrote: »

A good way of getting a few free opinions is to try no win no fee solicitors - the will give some general advice, but more than that, whether they are willing to take on the case (which you are not committed to agreeing) will tell you how good your chances are.

Now that is something that I wouldn't have thought of.

I agree with your points about not trusting advice, as the one person that knows most about my case and has the greatest motivation is me! I have just ordered an up to date book on tribunals, as the numerous library ones I have been reading are mostly about 10 years old!

I am hoping my case is not too complicated. I was made redundant and during my notice period another job became available. I applied for and did not get it. Afterwards read in the company redundancy policy that they should first shortlist and interview any applicants under consultation or notice period for redundancy. If any of them could do the job with 'reasonable support and training' they have to offer them the job (I was the only applicant being made redundant). Only if no-one is suitable should they then shortlist other applicants. This was not done, they shortlisted and interviewed everybody on the same day. I was told I came 3rd so I don't think they can try and claim that I could not do the job, it is a pretty basic job and a grade lower than my role that was made redundant. (I just wanted to stay in the pension scheme and the holiday entitlement was good!)

There is some other issues I will throw in about the consultation not being meaningful and there were errors in their letter refusing my appeal, but I believe (from what I have read so far in the out of date library books) that by not offering me the alternative job means the dismissal is unfair especially as they did not follow their own policy.
According to their website they employ 'over 7,000' across different offices, I believe that is also a factor that is considered in how easy they should have found it to offer alternative work.

concerned43

As a CAB advisor I can confirm that we only give advice according to what is held on our internal system. All advice has to be written in case file and each bit of advice needs to have its 'source' written next to it. This source being from the system or the many law books that we have.
Putting that aside, I would not advise you to represent yourself at a tribunal. You would really need to know employment law inside out!!
I personally would hire a solicitor in this field or see if your local CAB has a lawyer assigned to them.