HOW TO REFER A CASE TO US FOR LEGAL REPRESENTATION?
There are a number of ways that you can ask us to take on your case:
- Call/Visit our Office.
- Our advice line offers confidential one‐off legal advice to asylum‐seekers, refugees as well as individuals or organizations working with them.
If you call us we will take brief details about your case to work out whether it is the sort of case where we will provide legal representation. We inform you of the next steps that you need to take to help us make a decision about whether we can provide legal representation.
Prospective clients can also send or fax us the papers we need to make a decision. If you approach us in this way, you must include the following information:
a) The name and contact details of the prospective client
b) Any deadline in your case;
c) The papers we need to make a decision. The papers available will depend on the stage the case has reached and if not all the papers are available we can still look at your case. However, if available, we need to see the following papers:
1. Records of interviews with the Home Office;
2. Reasons for refusal letters;
3. Grounds of appeal;
4. Determinations of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal;
5. Grounds for reconsideration submitted to the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal or the Administrative Court.
6. Decisions of the Administrative Court or Court of Appeal in your case, and;
7. Any new evidence that you have.
Papers should be sent by post to:
Office Address
112, Clifton Center,
K.P.T Underpass, Khayaban-e-Roomi,
Clifton, Karachi, Pakistan
If you urgently need legal representation, please mark the papers clearly as being ‘New Cases’ and fax the information and papers we require to: 92 21 35822621
HOW WILL WE DECIDE WHETHER WE WILL PROVIDE REPRESENTATION IN YOUR CASE?
One of the experienced members of our legal team will look carefully at the papers that you provide us and may need to contact you to ask you some questions. In assessing a case we will consider:
1) Whether it is the sort of case that we provide legal representation;
2) Whether we have a member of the Legal Team who has sufficient time and expertise to provide the required level of legal representation;
3) Whether the case has realistic prospects of success;
4) Whether, regardless of the prospects of success, there is another compelling reason for us to provide representation;
5) Whether the prospective client is eligible for Legal Services Commission funding (although we retain discretion to provide free legal advice to clients who are not eligible for Legal Services Commission funding)
6) Whether we would be able to fulfill our professional obligations in taking on the case (for example, we will not take a client’s case if there is a conflict of interest with another client of ours or we have insufficient time or capacity to provide adequate representation).
WHEN CAN YOU EXPECT TO HEAR FROM US ABOUT OUR DECISION AND WHAT WILL WE TELL YOU?
If you ask us to provide legal representation and provide us with copies of the papers we require you should hear back from us within, at most, 02 working days. If you have not heard back from us then please telephone 92 21 35822618 and ask to speak to the casework assistant about a new case that you have referred.
If we decide that we can provide the client with legal representation we will contact them and ask them to sign a form of authority and other papers.
If we decide that we cannot provide the client with legal representation we will write the client a letter setting out the reasons for that decision.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF YOU NEED URGENT HELP?
If you require urgent help with your case because you are, for example, facing imminent removal from the country or there is a deadline, please telephone 92 21 35822618 and ask to speak to the casework assistant. If we have capacity to help, your details will be taken and a member of the Legal Team will get back in touch with you as quickly as possible.
