I would like to express many thanks to Mr Mike Charles who recently acted on my behalf, and who secured an alternative educational placement for my son Daniel, who has a special education needs requirement.
Shropshire's Local Education Authority (LEA) failed to fully recognise, or indeed acknowledge Daniel's requirements (even after independant assessments had been conducted), and eventually when they did acknowledge this, were reluctant to grant an alternative educational placement.
Had it not been for the high level of professional advice and representation provided by both Mr. Mike Charles and Mr. John Friel (barrister), then Daniel would have been denied alternative schooling to meet his needs, and the proper education that he rightly deserves. Thanks once again!

A good firm to work with as an expert witness. Always very helpful and pleasant. Able to develop pleasing relationships with all the staff at the firm.

We have known Mike Charles for the past three years during which time he has been acting as solicitor for our autistic son.

It has not been easy but we have found Mike not only knows his business but has fought hard alongside us and offered his encouragement when needed.

We consider him a friend and continue to trust him with ongoing litigation on behalf of our son.

Being the parents of two children with special needs, we were finding it increasingly difficult to also get our son the education and support he needed.  We attended a Sinclair's Seminar and from there Mike Charles took up our case.  His expertise and dedication enabled our son to attend a specialist school of our choice.  We have always found Sinclair's professional and friendly and are very happy to recommend them to others.

We would like to sincerely thank you for helping us win our appeal to get Katie into our local primary school. With everything stacked against us we really felt we were in an utterly hopeless situation and that taking our case to appeal would be a futile exercise that would only serve to increase uncertainty when perhaps we ought to accept the decision of the council and concentrate on making another school work for Katie.

Our instinct was that given the circumstances this was a very unfair decision on Kate and your ability to translate this 'instinct' into a legal argument to support our appeal demonstrated a superior knowledge of Education Law that could not be ignored by the appeal panel on the day. Our local head-teacher was both stunned and impressed when the appeal panel found in our favour; in his words 'we have never known an appeal to succeed' in the recent history of their school.

To see Kate's excitement as she attended her 'settling in' session with her friends last week made the whole ordeal worthwhile and confirmed that this was the right thing to do for Katie.

Mr and Mrs F Cardiff

I wish to thank you for the assistance you gave to both my husband and I in securing for my daughter a specialist school placement.

I have battled for many years with the local authority and the school who were always expressing reluctance to recognise and support my child’s difficulties. When I met Mr Charles at your firm I recall him saying how tired how looked. This was of course because I was having to contend with a child with significant problems without help. My daughters case demonstrates how difficult it is for parents to proceed unaided and isolated from special needs help. On a daily basis as a family we had to deal with a child who was returning home from a school which was saying that all was well, yet my daughter was depressed and heavily medicated during her school hours. When home she would attack my husband and I and do her best to disrupt how sleep patterns and everyday living. I remember telling Mr Charles how desperate I was to find a solution for my daughter and that without a solution I feared that either she or someone in our home would be injured or even killed. I recall how concerned Mr Charles was when he learned the extent of medication that my daughter was having to take in order to survive in mainstream school. I remember the school’s reaction when I sent my daughter to school without medication for one day only, which revealed to the school what the family were experiencing on daily basis. The school with all the support available to them could not cope for more than 2 hours and sent her home!!

As a result Mr Charles recommended that I approach the school for a meeting which he attended. He assured me that he would resolve the matter which I say dominated our lives for over 12 years. As a result of your specialist representation my daughter speedily found a specialist placement and she is now on the road to recovery. Our home life has improved and my daughter is now appearing back to us albeit it is a slow process. I remember also your concern about deflecting my child from a future that might involve the criminal process and I am delighted to say that my daughter I believe has now been saved from this possibility

Thank you for helping us achieve this, and I do hope that my story will benefit others to believe there is a solution out there for those seeking to find it.