Employment Lawyer? Barrister? Advocate? Union? or HR Consultant? Who to choose, and why.
Unlike most other areas of law, someone seeking employment advice or dealing with an employment issue is not restricted to obtaining advice and representation from a lawyer, and can, instead, choose to directly instruct a barrister, engage an employment advocate, be represented by a union or engage an HR consultant.
This can lead to significant amounts of confusion (for example, when someone thinks their advocate is a lawyer when they are not). To further complicate matters, like with any other type of professional, some employment lawyers, barristers, advocates, union reps and HR consultants are better than others.
When considering whether to engage an employment lawyer, barrister, advocate, union representative or HR consultant, it may pay to consider the following:
What are their qualifications, if any?
What is their experience and expertise, and how relevant is it to your situation?
How important is it for you that their advice is protected by privilege (so that you don’t have to disclose it to the other side)?
Are they required to undertake continuing professional development? If they aren’t required to undertake CPD, do they choose to do so?
Do they hold professional indemnity insurance?
Are they subject to effective regulation by a professional body or statutory regulator?
If they advertise themselves as being ‘more affordable than a lawyer’, is that actually the case, and if so, what are the compromises you are accepting?
Please contact Abdinor Employment Law to discuss your your circumstances and whether we are the right fit to help you with your employment issue.
