There are now very few firms that offer advice in relation to an impending criminal prosecution and even less firms who can simultaneously explore the case from both a Family Law and Special Educational Needs (SEN) perspective.
The Crime, Family and SEN teams at Shentons work together to offer this unique service, ensuring that you and your family’s need for legal advice is met from all relevant angles.
We recently had a case where a mother was facing potential prosecution for her children not attending school. The case was complex due to the children having witnessed domestic violence in the home. They were now displaying the symptoms of post-traumatic stress and struggling to go to school. When they were at school, they were angry and wanted to go home. The school perceived the behaviour as a discipline issue and that the children refusing to attend school was the sign of a neglectful parent.
When the client came to us, she was at breaking point. She was still negotiating the breakdown of her relationship and needed advice to protect herself and the children from contact with her ex-partner. Our Family lawyers helped her to apply for a protective order preventing her ex-partner from entering the family home.
Our SEN team advised on which experts would help to evidence the post-traumatic stress disorder with which the children were suffering. They then worked with the crime team on written representations to argue that in fact the school had failed to accommodate the children’s disability. There were many small concessions that the school could make to adjust so that the children could more easily attend lessons.
One of our Criminal lawyers attended court and successfully persuaded the Prosecutor to drop the pending court proceedings against the mother for the children failing to attend school. A criminal trial would have meant a huge amount of stress and expense for our client and obviously had it resulted in a conviction would have likely resulted in a substantial financial penalty.
A client’s troubles rarely fit into a neatly defined legal area, and that would ordinarily mean instructing different firms to deal with the different parts of the problem. We recognise that in a situation such as this, the last thing a parent would want is to have to recount their issues multiple times, to different lawyers. At Shentons, our clients can give us their problem in its entirety.
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