Good evening fellow nairalanders, you will recall I made the post below a year ago about the British government denying my sister inlaw her resident permit after spending more than 10 years in the UK. I want to inform this forum that my sister inlaw won her case in the court last month and today, she has been given her permit to stay permanently in the UK. God is faithful. Believe in your self and don't lose hope.

Good evening all please a cousin of mine needs my help from London. She attended her university there about 10 years ago and started working. But recently when they supposed to issue her papers they did not so she went to court and won the case but her lawyer was a swindler. She was given the option for getting her resident paper or getting her damages fees she opted for her papers but the lawyer insisted in both. The lawyer submitted his own account number requesting the government to pay him directly instead of my cousin. After so many arguments with the lawyer we advised her to allow the lawyer submit his account number hence what she needed is her papers. Now she was expecting a letter deliverying her resident papers but got a letter of denial. Now she is not aware if the lawyer has received alert and refused to inform her. She informed the lawyer of the letter of denial but all the lawyer could do was to request 1k pounds to reappeal the government decision. Please body with contact of human rights lawyers in London that can assist her? Useful advice please.
Moderator please move this to front page

Moderator please move this to front page abeg.

Hmmm, you might want to ask your question with the below link.

https://www.nairaland.com/4158866/living-uk-life-uk-immigrant/164

Please push this to FP

MrBrownJay1:
- Damages fee for what exactly?!
- If your lawyer pleads your case and win damages, they generally receive the money on your behalf, take their fee and give you the rest
- what was the reason for denial
- do you expect the lawyer to reappear FOR FREE?!
- in the UK, lawyers don't receive phone alert like in Nigeria, go to the court to see the status of whatever case you are talking about ( visa or damages)

She know that the lawyer will not appear for free but her challenge is that the lawyer placed more emphasis on the money to be paid her than on getting the papers. Note that she pays her lawyer every time he appears in court. She is not owning the lawyer a dime.. She can not even know the status of the payment if she tries because every information will come through her lawyer but her lawyer is not telling her the truth. Now if she gets a new lawyer, the case will start afresh again and this involves money and time.

The information you have provided is not clear or straight forward so offering advice will be quite difficult.

To start with what is the affected persons immigration history?

To apply for long residence such person needs to have accrued valid leave in any of the Visa categories for the 10 year period (for eligibility purposes)

Note, their leave must have been continuous that is without any breaks at all (this will mean that at no time were they without leave during the 10 year period and if there was anytime their application for leave was refused then they were covered lawfully during their appeal process- refer to section 3c and the related also bear in mind the maximum time limit for absence from the UK).

Was the lawyer a pro bono one? Perhaps the affected person can speak to or contact OISC regarding the conduct of this solicitor but again as you are speaking on behalf of the affected it's hard to know what has transpired between the two parties!
On what grounds was the Visa refused? Again you didnt say and on what basis are damages being claimed?
Please kindly go back and ask the affected these questions, I logged in to at least point you in the right direction however this can only be possible if there is sufficient information .

Just reading this case again and are you talking about the appeal fee the court refunds if the appeal is allowed? This gets refunded directly to the account the payment was made from which leads to the question of if the lawyer paid the appeal fee from his own account on behalf of the affected?

Again, if the appeal was allowed, is the affected aware that the H/O can appeal the judgement? If this is allowed both parties again appear at a slightlyhigher court than the first they both attended to again argue their case this time in reference to the initial judgement which can again be allowed or dismissed at the discretion of the new judge presiding the case.

Listen, speak to your cousin get the facts of the case correctly. Goodluck

Again, am concerned re using a lawyer for long residence application? That's money that could have been spent on other things. Requirements are so straight forward and easy for this category. Am just thinking out loud here but please like I said ask the relevant questions come back and let's take it from there.

amliftedhigher:

She know that the lawyer will not appear for free but her challenge is that the lawyer placed more emphasis on the money to be paid her than on getting the papers. Note that she pays her lawyer every time he appears in court. She is not owning the lawyer a dime.. She can not even know the status of the payment if she tries because every information will come through her lawyer but her lawyer is not telling her the truth. Now if she gets a new lawyer, the case will start afresh again and this involves money and time.

Bro....read the questions I asked and answer each of them (separately) as best you can so we can at least understand what you are talking about. I have no clue what you wrote above as you are mixing everything (damage compensation + visa issue).

What happened to my contact the Legal Ombudsman post? They are free.

https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/

budaatum:
What happened to my contact the Legal Ombudsman post? They are free.

https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/

Before Legal ombudsman would get involved, you would to initially use the internal complaint procedure of the law Chambers.........

SisiMamaonigba:
The information you have provided is not clear or straight forward so offering advice will be quite difficult.

To start with what is the affected persons immigration history?

To apply for long residence such person needs to have accrued valid leave in any of the Visa categories for the 10 year period (for eligibility purposes)

Note, their leave must have been continuous that is without any breaks at all (this will mean that at no time were they without leave during the 10 year period and if there was anytime their application for leave was refused then they were covered lawfully during their appeal process- refer to section 3c and the related also bear in mind the maximum time limit for absence from the UK).

Was the lawyer a pro bono one? Perhaps the affected person can speak to or contact OISC regarding the conduct of this solicitor but again as you are speaking on behalf of the affected it's hard to know what has transpired between the two parties!
On what grounds was the Visa refused? Again you didnt say and on what basis are damages being claimed?
Please kindly go back and ask the affected these questions, I logged in to at least point you in the right direction however this can only be possible if there is sufficient information .

Thanks for your concern.
She went there with student visa initially. When her stay expired she went for another paper and got it, in fact she has been renewing her papers until this last one that happened since two or three years ago. She went as usual to apply for renewal but she was arrested and detained during the time she was in, she lost her job. When she came out she went to court to sue for damages and to get her permanent paper. She has been losing, reappealling and winning just like this till this January when this her present lawyer won the case for her at the appeal court. The total money due to her was over 15,000 pounds and also to give her the papers. She was paying her lawyer every dime.

amliftedhigher:

Thanks for your concern.
She went there with student visa initially. When her stay expired she went for another paper and got it, in fact she has been renewing her papers until this last one that happened since two or three years ago. She went as usual to apply for renewal but she was arrested and detained during the time she was in, she lost her job. When she came out she went to court to sue for damages and to get her permanent paper. She has been losing, reappealling and winning just like this till this January when this her present lawyer won the case for her at the appeal court. The total money due to her was over 15,000 pounds and also to give her the papers. She was paying her lawyer every dime.

Student visa expired, which already deemed her an illegal immigrant. What is the name of the other paper she applied for?

You don't know half of the the real story and applications she filed.........

amliftedhigher:

Thanks for your concern.
She went there with student visa initially. When her stay expired she went for another paper and got it, in fact she has been renewing her papers until this last one that happened since two or three years ago. She went as usual to apply for renewal but she was arrested and detained during the time she was in, she lost her job. When she came out she went to court to sue for damages and to get her permanent paper. She has been losing, reappealling and winning just like this till this January when this her present lawyer won the case for her at the appeal court. The total money due to her was over 15,000 pounds and also to give her the papers. She was paying her lawyer every dime.

Immigration who was ordered to pay 15k and give visa then deported doesn't sound right!

If she was working it should be tied to her employment! What was her visa renewed for? What work was she doing? Are you sure she wasn't working illegally with a student visa?

So when you say she has been losing and reappearing I hope you realise that she might have exhausted all her appeal options and possibly gone the JR route as well (I suspect the discussion around damages happened during JR? I am concerned as to why she was arrested in the first place? What type of Visa was she renewing? TIER 2, Entrepreneur? FLR O or M? What Visa was she seeking extension for? I am not trying to string you on here or asking questions for asking sake but you need to be very clear when providing information. To start with ask her to Google OISC , get in touch with them to discuss the issue of the solicitor and they should be able to advice. When the case was won in Jan did she get anything from the courts to say HO were appealing the decision made in her favour? Because except they got back to court to appeal the decision (and they get a fresh ruling in their favour) they CANNOT go against a court ruling. My heart does go out to you both but it's really hard to give a straight forward reply as I dont think you have all the details yourself. Please share our comments with your cousin and hopefully she would be able to pick some helpful tips from all of the responses here.

amliftedhigher:

Thanks for your concern.
She went there with student visa initially. When her stay expired she went for another paper and got it, in fact she has been renewing her papers until this last one that happened since two or three years ago. She went as usual to apply for renewal but she was arrested and detained during the time she was in, she lost her job. When she came out she went to court to sue for damages and to get her permanent paper. She has been losing, reappealling and winning just like this till this January when this her present lawyer won the case for her at the appeal court. The total money due to her was over 15,000 pounds and also to give her the papers. She was paying her lawyer every dime.

amliftedhigher:

Thanks for your concern.
She went there with student visa initially. When her stay expired she went for another paper and got it, in fact she has been renewing her papers until this last one that happened since two or three years ago. She went as usual to apply for renewal but she was arrested and detained during the time she was in, she lost her job. When she came out she went to court to sue for damages and to get her permanent paper. She has been losing, reappealling and winning just like this till this January when this her present lawyer won the case for her at the appeal court. The total money due to her was over 15,000 pounds and also to give her the papers. She was paying her lawyer every dime.

Her VISA expired (I.e she became an illegal).
She went for another PAPER.

Visa expired then she went for paper?
Biko, can you ask her the name of the paper she went for? Was the paper in lieu of a visa?

They wont tell u the whole story. After her student visa expired which paper did she get na

amliftedhigher:

Thanks for your concern.
She went there with student visa initially. When her stay expired she went for another paper and got it, in fact she has been renewing her papers until this last one that happened since two or three years ago. She went as usual to apply for renewal but she was arrested and detained during the time she was in, she lost her job. When she came out she went to court to sue for damages and to get her permanent paper. She has been losing, reappealling and winning just like this till this January when this her present lawyer won the case for her at the appeal court. The total money due to her was over 15,000 pounds and also to give her the papers. She was paying her lawyer every dime.

Can you ask your sister to come and explain things here? Though I understand some of things you said but a lot still need clarification.

If she won the case and UKBA still sent refusal letter then something new came up.