Weareadvocate Avis 

It concerns me that the negative reviews on this site will mean people won't apply for help because they think it's pointless. It absolutely isn't. Advocate are not going be able to help everyone simply because there may not be a legal professional with experience in your particular issue, or who has availability when you need it, or because there is no one available in your area. What Advocate needs is a larger pool of professionals but they can't do anything about that.
In my case, i applied for help early on in my multitrack court case and the wonderful Stephen was my contact at Advocate. He tried for months to find someone but no one was available, however he continued to try when he could have just given up and eventually found the most amazing Barrister who was knowledgeable, professional and very down to earth. I was beyond stressed when Alex was assigned to my case and two years into the process. Being a Litigant in Person can be very daunting for normal people with no experience of our legal system, which definitely isn't set up to help the little people. I had no funds to mount my defense or counterclaim and had spent several terrifying days in court alone, facing the other side's solicitors and judges who all acted like I wasn't in the room. It was such a relief to have someone in my corner and it really saved my sanity. Alex helped me to reach settlement to my benefit and amazement as I was the defendant and expecting to be paying out not receiving a pay out myself.

If you are in need of support because you are unable to afford legal counsel, do not hesitate to contact Advocate. The staff there are helpful, supportive and knowledgeable and if you are eligible for their services, they will do the utmost to help you and will remain invested in your success right until the end. I cannot thank them enough for what they did for me.

You fill out a very long and detailed form, then painstakingly attach (in my case) multiple documents and letters to this form. Only to be contacted by email days afterward, asking you to upload the same information that you already included with the application form? Then…you hear nothing back. Zero. So ALL of your most private and vulnerable information has gone to someone’s inbox somewhere with not even so much as an acknowledgement. For them to do what? Sit on it?

They take forever to respond to emails. There is no phone number to call.

They said they will find me a solicitor. It’s been 7 months still no solicitor.
So whatever case you’re dealing with the other party always has the upper hand because you don’t have a legal team. They don’t file papers for you or do any paperwork.

They just watch you do whatever you can on your own

Advocate assisted me with a personal legal matter. I was very fortunate to be supported by such a great organisation with some exceptional people.

Their service does exactly what it says on the tin. Whilst I know advocate to be extremely busy helping people every time they communicated with me, (generally on email) they did exactly what they said they would do in the allotted time tables, which is really helpful. Often personal legal matters are very stressful so knowing you have their support whether that be in the form of Barrister support is invaluable.
I was fortunate over the 2 years that Advocate helped me to have worked with several excellent Barristers who had vast and specific knowledge into the areas that I need support and assistance in.

Again I am so grateful to Advocate and cant imagine where I would be if I had not had their ongoing support.

Thanks Advocate!!!

James

IT IS ALMOST A YEAR NOW, BEEN THINKING HOW TO GO ABOUT THIS BANCH OF TIME WASTERS! I will give a minus 0 if there was a such score simply because they are pure evil do not dare to challenge any question you think is not right they will dump you while pretending they still have your best interest at heart. They will even ask all of your complainant documents simply to go and share with them while pretending to you that they "are on your side". I COULD GO ON BUT .....

PLEASE PLEASE AVOID THIS AWFUL COMPANY.

Excellent, much needed advice and support provided. Thank you so much.

Forget them for Judicial Review cases

Previously, I got pro bono when they worked by referral, which I got, and got a QC, and the other party (Govt Department) immediately conceded and the pro bono society got all costs.

Now, they review cases without a referral, which means it takes months instead of days to get a decision. I was refused and given a reason that 100% showed the reviewer did not consider the very first most important aspect of my Judicial Review process against the local council for cancelling my refugee sponsorship and with that an income and more; the council had no statutory or non-statutory right / discretion to do that. A simple slam dunk for a barrister. But I got rejected for faux reasoning.

The fact is they are now swamped with applications given the referral system has gone. Plus they have next to NO Public law / Judicial Review barristers ready to do pro bono work, BUT Advocate don't admit it; they pretend to consider when they can not say "Yes", NOW, they can ONLY say "No" to Judicial Review cases.

Proof of this is Advocate claimed because the council claimed discretion (which they did not have in law), discretionary decisions are too hard / subjective to fight. Duh! Listen, the Judicial Review process is that the Court first decides if there is a valid reason and good chance of success. If they agree, the Court gives permission for the case to proceed; who are Advocate to say that I have little chance before the court has decided that same thing??!! Plus, in Judicial Review cases, even when the council has discretion, you do not have to prove the council decision ultimately was wrong, only the Council should have allowed you (me) to participate, defend myself and appeal (which did not happen), that there was a fair chance I would win an appeal with an independent panel / authority. And, again, this was a slam dunk simple case as the Council did and does not have the right to cancel any such sponsorship; only the Home Office do.

Judicial Review is NOT a case of proving the council decision was wrong as Advocate surmised (that would be a civil law professional negligence matter), but proving that the decision was wrongly made (they were not allowed to / did not follow the rules). This is basic law stuff that even I understand but is totally missing in Advocate's reasoning.

Proof of this also is the fact they could not even point me to a barrister who would charge me at a reasonable rate. You know, the UK is full of self-important BS, but you would at least expect these guys to tell the truth.

So, don't waste your time. Try and get a low cost barrister or Legal Aid (good luck with that) or act as a Litigant in Person (best wishes for that too).

BTW MY MND and end of life certification made zero difference to weareadvocate.org.uk

Thank you for your representation, and winning my case. I know I would not have a chance without a lawyer, I had no chance to pay a private one. Calum was excellent. Thank you again.

On the 7th July 2023 I made the readers aware of my experience with these people and that I would follow up with more should I not receive a reply voicing my concerns with them, there has been no reply and my queries have not been addressed, hence this review.
Of the 3 people I dealt with one was supposedly a lead case worker ( who I found would not communicate ) the second her assistant ( who seemed more interested in whether I had enough money to gain help ) and he also wasted time asking me to produce documents that I had already sent him.
Having not received a reply, as already stated in my first review , I tried to contact ANYBODY and the third person replied stating the following : Quote : You are correct that ??????? is your assigned caseworker, and therefore your queries should be sent to her. I am not a caseworker and as such, cannot answer any of your queries.I've copied ?????? in so she knows you have been in touch.
Unquote: It was out of desperation and a timescale involving a third party that I had to try and get a reply from ANYBODY as the person named ??????? was not replying.

The third person also went on to say how she understood how frustrating it was waiting for a reply due to them having limited resources but assured me that they were working dilligently on my case.

After 6 days I received my documents back with the wrong reference number on them and after contacting the third person she seemed really concerned obviously because she must have believed somebody else may have received the wrong personal data that she had sent out.
The third person contacted me 3 times in the same day on this occasion proving to me that they could make contact when they wanted to but as far as DILLIGENCE went, I don't think so !

The above is just one of a few sceptical remarks made by staff at this organisation and I will send more reviews in up until I receive answers to the questions I have raised with them.

Having been established in 1996 and only having 4 good reviews and 3 bad ones on this site does not say a great deal for their achievements.

I like Abdul X ( another reviewer ) who probably went to these people after using other Quangos like the Ombudsman or ICO has found out the truth as I have done.

Wallace

DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME OTHERWISE YOU WILL END UP HEARTBROKEN..

THESE ARE HEARTLESS,CARELESS AND RECKLESS PEOPLE WHO ARE ONLY HERE TO EXPLOITE PEOPLE'S SUFFERINGS AND HARDSHIPS..

FIRST THEY WILL CLEVERLY TELL YOU WHAT YOU LOVE TO HEAR...

FOR EXAMPLE..THEY WILL TELL YOU THAT THEY WILL HELP,THAT THEY WILL FIND YOU A SOLICITOR WHO WILL SOLVE YOUR CASE..ETC.

THEIR GOAL IN DOING SO IS TO TELL THE AUTHORITIES THAT THEY ARE HELPING THE PEOPLE ( THEY WILL GONNA USE YOUR CASE AND DETAILS ) SO THAT THE AUTHORITIES WILL KEEP FUNDING THIS DODGE ADVOCATE..AND THIS IS THEIR ABSOLUTE GOAL..

OVER THE COURSE OF TEN MONTHS THEY WERE TELLING ME THAT THEY WILL GONNA HELP,THEY ARE GONNA FIND A SOLICITOR,
THAT I NEED TO BE PATIENT....ETC, THEN ONCE THEY BECOME AWARE THAT I HAVE UNDERSTAND THEIR DIRTY GAMES,..THEY SAID THAT THERE'S NO SOLICITOR PLEASE DON'T BE UPSETTED BY OUR GAMES.., ? !!!!!

FIRST..I STRONGLY RECOMMEND TO ALL PEOPLE THAT THEY MUST STAY AWAY FROM THIS SO-CALLED " WE ARE ADVOCATE " MAFIA..

SECONDLY..PLEASE DON'T BE FOOLED BY WHAT SOME PEOPLE WRITE IN THE REVIEWS, BECAUSE WE WERE MISLED BY SUCH GAMES, SO..PLEASE ONLY TRUST YOURSELF AND THOSE WHO YOU KNOW ARE TRUSTWORTHY..

THIRDLY...YOUR TIME IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN YOUR LIFE, SO..DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THESE UNTRUSTWORTHY PEOPLE.

BEST

ABDUL X

Very kind, professional service offering free representation from volunteer barristers. I received essential assistance that I would not have been able to afford from a private practice. If it were not for the representation I received, I am certain that my case would not have gone very well. I cannot recommend this service highly enough.

Advocate helped us like no other.

Twice we received professional help at the highest level in our very complicated case, which no one in England wanted to take on. Only Advocate came to our aid. For our court hearings, we were assisted twice by the Barister. They were very competent, professional and very brave people. There are no words to express our gratitude to the entire Advocate TEAM.
Best regards Anna C. & Piotr K. of Corby

Utterly useless and incompetent, guaranteed you will lose your case if you go near them.

I asked Advocate to assign a barrister to me because my ex-partner sued me. Sophie was very helpful and she introduced me to a young, bright barrister, who won my case easily. He worked very hard on my case and he was very committed the whole time. I m very grateful to Advocate for helping me out with my case.

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all the volunteers at ‘Advocates’ (especially my Barrister Sonia Simms) for all their hard work and support that they provided to me. If you are unfamiliar with their service they provide free legal representation to people such as myself who do not have the means to pay for legal help and are ineligible to receive legal aid.

I had been falsely accused of committing a Section 5 Public Order offense and wanted to fight my conviction on principle. Having exhausted other possibilities of getting representation I was put in touch with Advocates. I completed the online application which was super easy and was contacted by Advocates as they willing to take on my case. Once I had confirmed all the details of my pending court case they matched me with an available Barrister Ms Sonia Simms.

I can highly recommend Advocates and my Barrister Sonia Simms (Farringdon Chambers) as she provided excellent counsel. Ms Simms was instrumental in getting my case dismissed by putting pressure on the Crown Prosecution Service to drop the charges against me, she worked tirelessly in drafting letters for me to send to the CPS and it was this tenacity and diligence that won the day. Admittedly this was only a small aspect of the time and effort that went into the preparation of my case and for that I am truly thankful. The service that I received was second to none and of a standard in which you would have paid handsomely for.

So if you ever find yourself in the same position as I was and you are in need of assistance where legal aid is not available then Advocates should be your first point of call!!

Keep up the great work, we appreciate you!