Re. Advocacy in application for Continuing Health Care: My comments relate to what I understood to be the cheapest sort of legal support which was available. The next higher level seemed to offer the collection of evidence, an analysis, and the provision of a preliminary opinion. I thought I could do that myself so it would only have served to make things more expensive. However, because of my own preparation I felt that a more tailored fee would have been appropriate, but that was not on offer. At first there was the usual business of the contract and the forms to fill in, which probably could not be avoided, but Farleydwek handled most of that sort of thing over the arrangements for the CHC assessment itself, which was nice. We have not yet had a decision, ideally according to guidelines and the Law, with the distinct possibility of needing more help with the legalistic business of appealing in future. I have seen that decisions can often appear arbitrary, and that legal help would then become yet more expensive. In the end that seems just the way it is i.e. a lottery, but maybe I am being unfair. Anyway the advocacy turned out to be very expert and competent, exactly as claimed. I thought I knew it all but that was not the case, and advocacy did really help. The CHC assessor attended in person and the 'mutidisciplinary team meeting' was held with the help of a conferance program on her laptop, which clearly showed the image of the social security rep. and FD's advocate. Everyone was easy and quite sociable so the meeting was not at all unpleasant, only becoming formal when necessary. The sound was excellent and and I thought that the advocate helped things to go as well as possible. That might have happened anyway but she clearly grasped the whole situation and was extremely efficient, definitely steering things in a favourable direction upon several occasions. With so much money at stake I felt happy that the massive fee was worth it, regardless of the outcome....