Law Clinic student advisors, Mhairi Strachan and Lauryn Dawber represented a client at a remotely held Temporary Suspension Order SSSC hearing on 8 July 2020.

This was our first experience of representing a worker at a SSSC (Scottish Social Services Council) hearing and our first experience of conducting a hearing remotely. It was certainly challenging with many issues to think carefully about including how our client would manage without support in person, how we would manage communication with each other and the client and how we would manage referring to a bundle while using Microsoft Teams.

We found MS Teams quite difficult to navigate, and between the two of us, we had our fair share of problems with the software. Mhairi ended up needing to use her phone instead of her laptop for the hearing. We could neither see our client, nor communicate with her privately. We overcame this by asking to be put in a private room with her when the panel were speaking in private and when asked whether we would like to take a break, we asked what our client wanted to do.

The hearing was on the application for a temporary suspension order which, if granted, would have a long lasting and very adverse impact on our client. We were able to lead evidence from  our client and another witness and make submissions. After some time  deliberating, the panel decided against a temporary suspension order .

Our client was delighted and we are very happy to have been able to help her achieve this outcome especially  after all of the preparations leading up to and a long day of being involved in the remote hearing. Mhairi and I are very grateful to Kate Laverty, who has supported us in preparing for the hearing.

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