As a number of students have recently completed exams - lawyers within Sinclairslaw higher education law department have emphasised the importance of students taking proper advice before launching student academic appeals. Legal advice can always provide a valuable step before embarking upon an internal appeal. "Many University students seek legal help too late, which can seriously compromise their prospects on launching a successful academic appeal" according to Higher Education law specialist solicitor Mr Michael Charles. "So often, meritorious claims can be damaged by students failing for example to pay proper regard to the University internal rules and regulations, or by students not seeking the right professional help in advance" Mr Charles added. There can be no doubt that the number of student appeals are growing. The Sinclairslaw higher education law department has already seen over a 50% rise in student enquiries from last years figures. According to Mr Chris McFarland an assistant solicitor within the specialist legal team the firm recently received over 67 new cases over only a two month period. "We have seen unprecedented numbers of students seeking to obtain legal help" he said, but warned "In many cases it is important to seek help at the right time." The Higher Education law department is however continuing to grow, no doubt enhanced by the fact that Sinclairslaw has recently been approved as a training provider for pupil barristers by the Bar Standards Board. What should a student who may be seeking to launch a student academic appeal against a University decision do? (a) Check the University rules and procedures very carefully. (b) If you consider that mitigation circumstances might have applied - always submit the notification as early as possible. Many Universities penalise students for seeking to rely upon mitigation circumstances after the examinations are completed. Most internal rules expect a student to explain the "good reasons" why these circumstances were not relied upon earlier. (c) Check your evidence - is it good enough? If for example a student is claiming that they were unwell - always try and obtain good medical evidence. Often Universities expect mitigating circumstances claims, or student academic appeals to be launched quickly. Sometimes students might not have sufficient time to obtain their evidence. If this is the case, write to the University to explain that the evidence is awaited and that it should not adjudicate upon the claim until the evidence is available. (d) Has the student been provided with sufficient reasons in advance by the University to permit an ability to launch an appeal based on the grounds relied upon by the University. (e) Be careful - as student academic appeals cannot challenge University academic judgment. However for academic judgment immunity to properly apply, the decision should normally be free of procedural irregularity. Indeed Sinclairslaw were involved in the leading case before the courts addressing this issue. The case of Gopikrishna -v- The OIA and the University of Leicester, was successfully argued by the firm. The case has established the law addressing the question of academic immunity. (f) Get legal help as early as possible. Remember, a lot of money is at stake - students might have paid a small fortune to get so far in their studies - legal help can often be vital. (g) When picking a solicitor to assist you - always look at lawyers who are expert in the field, and who might have been involved in many cases. There is never a substitute for experience. Sinclairslaw are leading experts in Higher Education law. The firm has over 20 years of experience in the subject and the University law team have worked on hundreds of student academic appeals, and have successfully argued cases on the subject in the High Court including for example being involved in some of the leading cases. If you need help in a higher education law case speak to one of our specialist solicitors today. Tel 0208 891 4488 or fill in our contact form. We look forward to helping you.