Legal Help
a guide for UNISON branches and regions
Contents
UNISON legal services application forms
Non-work related personal injury claims
Work-related personal injury claims
Telephone, web and email access to personal injury cases
Accident Helpline 0800 5 97 97 50
Protection from costs in personal injury and road-traffic accident claims
Free initial legal advice on any matter which is not related to work
Appendix I: Standards of service quality
This guide describes our legal services for branches so that members and branches can make the most of the excellent range of legal services we provide.
The range of legal services we provide has not been matched within the trade union movement. We have entered into arrangements with three specialist firms.
• Thompsons covering England, Wales and Scotland (except the Greater London area).
• O.H. Parsons covering Greater London. • Thompson McClures covering Northern Ireland.
Under these arrangements our branches will now have access, through their regional office to local high-quality employment advice. Our in-house lawyers will concentrate on the legal issues which affect large numbers of our members. unison's legal service is organised into two separate but closely linked units. The Employment Rights Unit handles the union's employment law issues. The Membership Legal Services Unit deals with a wide range of legal services available to individual members.
Members who want legal help on an employment matter should contact their branch who can refer the matter to the regional officer. Members or branches should not instruct solicitors, as we will not pay any costs you have to pay.
In difficult cases we have made special arrangements for black members. We are also giving similar consideration to lesbian and gay members.
Full members who meet the membership requirements are entitled to legal help for:
• accidents at work or on the way to or from work (including industrial diseases or work-related assaults) or while on union business which result in personal injury;
• work-related criminal offences where the police are involved; • immigration issues; • employment issues; • work tenancy problems;
• free initial legal advice on any matter which is not to do with work; and
• wills and conveyancing service.
And all our members and their families qualify for legal help for any road traffic accident in which they have been injured and in all non-work related personal injury cases.
All these services are described in detail on the next few pages.
To qualify for legal help, the member will have to show that:
• they were a member at least 13 weeks before they knew they needed legal help;
• their subscriptions are up to date; and
• they must continue to pay subscriptions while the case is going ahead.
Special rules apply to industrial diseases (see personal injury claims on page 4 for details).
The National Executive Council may withdraw legal help if members do not follow the advice or if they fail to reply to letters or phone calls.
UNISON legal services application forms
There are six different forms—details are listed below. *As a simple alternative to using forms PI, PI (non-work), and RTA members may also access these services either by phone—using the Accident Helpline 0800 5 97 97 50—or complete an online form on our website, or email accidenthelpline@unison.co.uk
*Pl Use this form for all work-related industrial accidents and diseases (including cases where the member has been the victim of an assault at work). Do not use this form for road traffic claims.
*PI (non-work) Use this form for all non-work related personal injury cases for members and their families apart from road traffic accidents (see below).
CR Use this form if the member is facing actual police enquiries or criminal charges arising out of work.
FLA Use this form for free initial legal advice on non-work matters. Send this form direct to the solicitors.
*RTA Use this form for personal injury claims for road-traffic accidents in which the member or members of their family have been injured. Do not use this form if the member only needs advice on claims for damage to a vehicle. Use form FLA for these claims. Use this form whether the accident is work-related or not.
CW Use this form for fixed cost conveyancing and free wills. Send the form direct to the solicitors.
Non-work related personal injury claims
Our members and their families are also entitled to legal help for non-work-related personal injury claims. The member's partner, parent and child are also entitled to this help. Use form PI (non-work).
To make sure any requests for legal help in personal injury and road-traffic cases are dealt with speedily forms PI, PI (non-work) and RTA should be sent to UNISON Membership Legal Services, PO Box no 21373, London WC1B 3PR (for mainland Britain) and UNISON, PO Box No 1118, Belfast BT1 4DW (for Northern Ireland).
You should always send filled-in form CR directly to: Membership Legal Services, 1 Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9AJ. Form FLA and CW should be sent to the relevant firm of solicitors.
Branch secretaries and officials must check that the member is using the correct form and that the member's details including name, job, membership number, address and postcode are correct. Branches must also sign all legal application forms to confirm:
• that the member was a member for at least 13 weeks before they knew they needed legal help;
• the member does not owe any subscriptions; and
• that the branch, region and service group details are correct.
UNISON does provide legal assistance in personal injury cases arising from medical negligence. The initial free service provides the member or family member with legal advice on the likely prospect of success in the case. This is effectively a filtering service to provide the member with initial advice.
Should the case go ahead UNISON is unable to fund all the costs due to the very expensive nature of these cases. We have however negotiated an advantageous package with our fixed fee firms of solicitors to enable members or family members to proceed with cases. The member or family member will be provided with full details of what financial contribution they may have to make before they decide whether to go ahead with the case.
Work-related personal injury claims
Members are entitled to legal help for personal injury claims (including industrial diseases) arising out of their employment or which happen while they are on the way to or from work or while on union duties. (Use form PI.)
In general, the NEC will authorise court proceedings if our solicitors say that a case has at least a 50% chance or better of success.
Under a TUC code of practice, we give legal help to all members who have developed industrial diseases as a result of being exposed to dangerous substances or noise in jobs before they joined UNISON. The member must have belonged to a TUC-affiliated union at the time.
Telephone, web and email access to personal injury cases
Instead of using application forms PI, PI (non-work) or RTA, members can also access all our personal injury services by telephone, the web or e-mail.
Our Accident Helpline Freephone number 0800 5 97 97 50 is open Monday to Friday 6am to midnight and Saturdays 10am - 4pm. Members should have their UNISON membership number (on their payslip) when calling to use this service.
To access the personal injury service online the UNISON website address is: www.unison.org.uk/legal. The email address is: accidenthelpline@unison.co.uk.
UNISON branches will be informed that the member has been referred to our solicitors via the Accident Helpline. The branch should let the Membership Legal Services unit know immediately should they believe the person is not entitled to assistance.
We use expert personal injury lawyers when we deal with members' claims. We closely monitor the quality of their work and the standard of service given to the members. We ask our lawyers to keep the branch advised of developments in the case. For this reason, we do not take over legal cases where a member wants to use their own private solicitor. We expect the firms to keep to our standards of service quality which clearly describe the level of service which members can expect to receive. We have included a copy of the standards of service quality in Appendix 1 on page 10.
All personal injury cases have strict time limits—three years for civil claims for personal injuries or diseases and two years for criminal-injury compensation claims for criminal assaults 28 days in Northern Ireland). Members or branches must not wait to the last minute to send in forms as this could severely affect members' rights.
Our members and their families arc entitled to legal help for road accidents in which they have been injured whether or not the accident was to do with work. Use form RTA. Members should use this service as well as telling the insurers about any claims.
Protection from costs in personal injury and road-traffic accident claims
If a member's case is brought through the courts, the member is liable for any legal costs. However, in these cases, we will protect the member (pay all legal costs) as long as she or he meets the conditions of our legal assistance scheme. At the start of each case, the member will receive a letter from their solicitor explaining this cover. We have included an example of a letter in Appendix 2
Members can receive legal advice and legal representation in the early stages of the case if they face criminal charges arising out of their work. Members are encouraged to get legal help as soon as they realise that criminal charges are a possibility. We will only represent members for road-traffic offences if the member's job is at risk if they are convicted of the offence. The NEC can refuse to represent members who decide to plead guilty to any offence with which they are charged. We do not represent members whose only role in criminal proceedings is in giving evidence.
Our legal services—at unison's discretion—will represent members up to and including any magistrates' or district court trial.
We can only represent members in criminal cases if UNISON Membership Legal Services Unit authorises this. If members want to apply for legal help, they must do so during office hours. All regions should have made special arrangements for emergency cases out of office hours. If a branch cannot contact our solicitors outside office hours through the regional office, the member should be told to use the police station's duty solicitor and contact our Membership Legal Services Unit as soon as possible.
Some criminal cases also involve disciplinary proceedings at work or by a professional organisation. It is not normally appropriate to appoint solicitors to deal with these areas of the case. The branch or regional office will deal with representing members.
We will give advice to or represent members who have immigration problems which are the cause of threat to their continued employment.
We provide help to all members who have difficulties at work. For instance, we can give help for problems to do with unfair dismissal, redundancy, employment protection and advising on contracts of employment. We will also give help with discrimination at work for reasons of sex, marital status, race, disability and sexuality. Because of Northern Irish law it is also possible in Northern Ireland to provide help in cases of discrimination based on religious or political beliefs.
In general, this advice or representation will be provided by the branch or regional office.
Because of the ever-increasing workload unison's in-house lawyers must prioritise matters which affect most members.
UNISON has entered into an arrangement with three trade union firms of solicitors—Thompsons, OH Parsons and Thompson McClures. This means regions (and branches through regions) can get advice directly from these firms on a number of issues. These arrangements will streamline services to our members. To use this advice, branch secretaries need to contact their regional officer.
In racial harassment and race discrimination cases you should give the member a copy of the Guidelines for Access to Legal Advice in Relation to Discrimination Issues for Black Members. These guidelines cover the responsibilities of the member to get representation and of those providing it. Members should be able to get copies of the guidelines from the branch or regional office.
If you want advice involving the following issues, you should contact the region which will then contact our Employment Rights Unit or other appropriate national department or service group.
• European law and all new laws such as the National Minimum Wage and the Employment Relations Act.
• Equal pay.
• Judicial review.
• Injunctions and interdicts.
• Matters affecting national terms and conditions.
• Strategic or national cases.
• Leading TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings provisions) and PFI (Private Finance Initiative) cases.
• Law relating to trade-union recognition.
• Pensions.
• Immigration.
•Rules.
• Working Time Regulations.
• All ]udicial appeals.
Appendix 3 on page 13 sets out the procedure to follow in employment cases.
Branches who want legal advice on industrial action should contact their regional office.
Because employment cases have strict time limits, branches should get advice in employment matters as soon as possible. Full details of time limits are available in the Legal Brief on employment Tribunals and Time Limits which can be obtained from unison's website. (www.unison.org.uk)
Members may be entitled to advice from our solicitors on any tenancy problems if they need to live in particular accommodation as part of their job, or if their employer has given them accommodation as part of their job. As a rule, members will get full legal representation, for example to defend possession proceedings, if the tenancy meets certain legal requirements.
Members can get initial advice on all other private tenancy matters under our free initial legal advice scheme.
Free initial legal advice on any matter which is not related to work
Our members only are entitled to free initial legal advice direct from our solicitors on any matter not related to work. They should send the filled-in form to Thompsons, OH Parsons or Thompson McClures, whichever is appropriate (see page 1). This free service entitles the member to receive a letter containing advice or a 30-minute interview. They cannot send the solicitors very complicated questions or ones involving large numbers of documents. As the scheme covers only initial advice, it does not include representing members before a court or tribunal.
Standards of service quality for our members
UNISON wants to make sure that our members receive the highest possible quality of service from our lawyers. For this reason, we have produced the following standards of service quality which describe the type of service you should expect to receive.
1.Information
You should receive the following information at an early stage from our lawyers.
• The name of the lawyer acting for you and in whose name all letters should be signed.
• An outline of the legal procedure together with the action which the lawyer is going to take.
• The relevant timescales.
• An estimate of the chances of the case.
You should receive this information in writing.
2 Communication
The lawyers must keep you in touch with the position in your case by sending regular written updates at least every three months.
3 Ways to communicate
We are committed to using plain English and it is very important that lawyers use plain English and explain any necessary jargon whenever they contact you. You may need a meeting to discuss your case in depth or you may find it easier to talk to the lawyer face to face for a number of reasons. For example, English may not be your first language or you may have difficulty with written language. The lawyer should not turn down a reasonable request if you ask to see him or her. If you have difficulty in travelling to the lawyer's office, the lawyer must try to see you at a convenient place you both agree on.
4 How quickly the lawyer should make contact
The lawyer should answer any letter you send as soon as possible. The person who is carrying out your case should return phone calls on the same working day or at least within 24 hours. This is especially the case if the nature and hours of your work means you have difficulty using a phone from 9am to 5pm. If this is not possible because your lawyer is out of the office, in court or on holiday, somebody else who knows about your case should be available to speak to you. The lawyer should normally reply to letters within five working days.
5 Complaints
If you are not happy with the quality of service you receive, you should raise your concern with the firm of lawyers according to their complaints procedure.
Appendix 2. Sample letter to client—accident at work or disease
Dear (insert name as appropriate)
Your union have asked me to act for you following your (accident at work/catching of x disease).
I enclose a pack containing information on how to claim for compensation, how we will deal with your case and details of social security benefits which you may be entitled to. I also enclose unison's standards of service quality which set out the quality of service which you should expect to receive from us.
To investigate your claim, I have arranged an appointment to see you at (give date). Please phone my secretary to confirm that you will be able to come. (Please enclose a directions card for office appointments).
(Please change this wording if it is not possible to see the client immediately).
I enclose a losses and injuries form for you to fill in and (bring to the meeting) (return to me).
You should not discuss your case with your employers. If they ask you about it, please contact me.
Please put this reference number on any letter you send me. If you have any problems to do with handling your case, let me know straightaway. The Managing Partner of this office is (insert name).
Yours sincerely,
FIRM OF SOLICITORS
Encs.