For professional, insurance and practical reasons, solicitors joining the Unit’s panel need to do so through their firm. Once a firm has joined, it is open to any number of members of the firm to join the Unit’s panel individually. In any member firm, a solicitor at partner level is asked to act as a link for the Unit, and there may also be someone nominated to be the first contact point for the Unit. We are extremely grateful to those firms who have already signed up to work with us.
The pointers below aim to answer some of the key questions you may have about joining the Unit's panel. If you would like to ask us anything else, please don’t hesitate to contact us. If you would like to join the panel, please download and complete our registration form and return it to the Unit. Please contact us if you would like to be sent a hard copy of the form.
Because of the nature of cases coming into the Unit, solicitors are called on fairly infrequently. Information on other opportunities for volunteering pro bono can be found through LawWorks and the national pro bono co-ordinating website.
Pointers
- All individual volunteer solicitors joining the panel stand ready to do a minimum of 3 days’ work through the Unit each year, although some do far more.
- You will only ever be asked to do a defined piece or pieces of work on a case, not to make an open-ended commitment to a case.
- Approaches to you to help will be made through the nominated link in your firm, and the partner nominated within the firm takes responsibility for deciding if help can be given. If you are available and have the requisite experience to do the piece(s) of work, we will send you a copy of the application to the Unit and any comments from the senior barrister who has reviewed the application and recommended assistance. The Unit is currently developing its site so that brief details of cases needing assistance can be displayed in the members' area of the site.
- Once you have received the papers, you then need to confirm with the Unit as quickly as possible, and usually within 48 hours, whether you can do the work required.
- You are under no obligation to take on a particular piece of work, but once you have agreed to do it, it must be treated with the same care and attention given to any other piece of work.
- After acceptance the applicant is given your details and told what assistance will be given, and a client relationship arises between your firm and the applicant. The Unit then drops into the background, unless difficulties arise.
- If further work is needed beyond that which you are asked to do, the Unit will need to re-review the file to approve further assistance before that help is given.
- A word on our limitations at the office. We are not instructing solicitors, nor qualified lawyers. We strive to do our very best, but we have limited resources, and cannot help with tasks such as compiling papers or answering complex questions on cases.