We can help the parent to lodge the appeal and, for England and Wales cases, we then have the option to refer the appeal to a legal firm if they have capacity. We would advise the parent to wait for our appointment if they have not already lodged the appeal themselves. The Tribunal has discretion to allow appeals up to 13 months after the decision date depending on the reasons for lateness. In Shirley and my cases, we would usually be lodging appeals within a few weeks of the deadline at most (so nowhere near 13 months) if we can't see the parent/YP before. Tribunals decide whether to accept the late appeal but they are usually very sympathetic if part of the reason for lateness is the parent/YP was waiting for an advice appt from a charity of advice agency.
We can help parents lodge the appeal online if that is what they would like to. We can then refer cases on for support by our pro bono firm Cooley (again if the parent wants us to). We will need to see a copy of all pages of the MR notice. Please check that it says MR notice at the top. If parents have already lodged an appeal we can offer an appointment about preparing for the tribunal and may be able to provide additional documents to help. If parents want to lodge the appeal themselves then they can using the link on ,gov. The same principles apply as with MR's a late appeal can be accepted up to 12 months after the decision if the claimant has good reason and waiting for an advice appointment is good reason.