Distressed Vulnerable Adult and Wasted Costs as ALS Interpreter Fails to Attend on Time
I was due to appear as an expert witness at North Shields Asylum Court last Tuesday for an Asylum Appeal hearing with a client of mine and we were expected to start at 10am. The client, myself, the solicitor and the barrister were all ready before 10am as were the Home Office and the Immigration Judge. The French ALS interpreter arrived at 11.05am. As a result of him being late, the Court managers decided to go ahead with the case which was supposed to follow our hearing. So instead of our case being heard first, we had to wait until 2.30pm to start.
The solicitor and I both lost half a day's work. It distressed the client because they had to wait for nearly five hours rather than half an hour for the start of their case – the client is a vulnerable adult who has had psychiatric care following his torture in his home country.
I had to cancel a therapy session with an interpreter for a father & son that I see together, so it cost us, a small charity, the cost of the interpreter we had booked, the return travel of the father & son and it wasted the travel time it took them. It also means that I have to rebook that session into my busy schedule.
Alan Brice
Centre Manager
North East Centre
freedomfromtorture.org