Three more happy clients just before Christmas (there’s a very special fourth one but the judgment is under a High Court ordered embargo, so I can’t report on this one yet).

The first, a nurse, had their case stopped at Case Examiner stage with a no case to answer decision. It concerned an allegation of dishonestly arranging colleagues to cover shifts when the registrant was unavailable. Following our submissions, the panel found that in fact there was no dishonesty and the registrant was exonerated.

The second was the subject of an interim order application made by the NMC. It was alleged they had falsified records, and failed to adequately risk assess patients, leading to actual (self) harm. This client had made a very belated request for help, 6 hours before their hearing, after seeing one of our Youtube videos in the middle of the night! We responded to their late night message prior to the hearing and advised them to apply for the hearing to be adjourned, and most importantly, how to do so. They succeeded in delaying the hearing for a week, which allowed us to get to work on the case. We attended the resumed hearing and made detailed submissions. As a result, the panel declined to make any order, finding that there was no proper evidential basis for the allegations made.

The third had a long running NMC case, stretching over 15 days in 3 sessions. From 21 initial charges, 16 were thrown out after a submission of no case to answer, a further 1 was found not proven, 3 of the remaining 4 were found not to amount to serious misconduct and the last was found not to impair the registrant’s fitness to practice. In truth, the last shouldn’t have been found to amount to serious misconduct, but the case ended successfully in any event.

All of the cases were ones where the registrants recognised that they could not do justice to their cases by representing themselves. In one case, the registrant transferred representation to us from their union, as they were not happy with how their case had been handled.

We try our very best to win every single case, because we have a deep understanding of how brutal these fitness to practise processes are for registrants and their families.

It’s wonderfully rewarding to be able to help in cases like these, particularly at this time of year - and so, we wish our clients and you all a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!