British lawyer who fights against cuts of disabled people's benefits is cleared of misconduct

From The Mirror in the UK:

A lawyer dubbed Britain's Erin Brockovich for her work fighting care-home closures has vowed to save the lives of thousands after being cleared of misconduct.

Yvonne Hossack (pictured in black), who does much of her work for free, has become a thorn in the side of councils across Britain, saving 80 homes and fighting for the disabled.

Her challenges led to a witch-hunt by local authority leaders, who complained she'd wasted time and money fighting hopeless cases and acted like a political campaigner.

Mum-of-two Yvonne, 52, was hit with six misconduct charges by three councils. But on Sept. 18 - after supporters, including Home Secretary Alan Johnson, spoke out in her defence - she was dramatically cleared by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

And yesterday she warned: "Councils across the country see me as a pain in the a**e and wish I'd go away. But I have a simple message for any authority planning to turf an elderly person out of a care home or unfairly cutting benefits to the disabled - 'Get ready for a fight'.

"If I had been struck off, thousands of people would have been left without a voice. And I am convinced many of my clients would have ended up dead."

Yvonne has been able to stop care home closures by forcing councils to consider that the effects of moving elderly residents can be fatal. Authorities she has taken on include Northamptonshire, Hull and Staffordshire.

She has also worked tirelessly to expose lies about why care homes were being shut.

Today, in an exclusive interview, Yvonne says she now plans to meet Mr Johnson to demand a change in the law to stop further care home closures.

Mr Johnson spoke up for Yvonne after she helped in the fight to save a home in his constituency of Hull, East Yorks. The pair will now toast her victory at the Commons.

Yvonne said: "Alan Johnson has sent me an email saying I could join him in the House of Commons bar for a gin and tonic.

"I will hold him to that now and I am looking forward to celebrating with a double. Then I will look him in the eye and tell him he must help end the care home closures going on across the UK.

"I want to see a change in the law so that a care home can only be closed if there is a clinical need."

She added: "Rising numbers of local authorities are selling off care homes simply to cash in on the land. And councils are becoming bigger bullies than ever in trying to get what they want if you take them on.

"The people making these decisions have no regard for the frightened pensioners inside who say moving will kill them. It is unacceptable." Yvonne has dedicated her life to giving a voice to the powerless. Working from her threebed home in Kettering, Northants, she represents the elderly, the mentally ill and the disabled.

She receives legal aid for about two-thirds of the 1,300 cases she works on a year... but she works on the rest for free.

Yvonne has never turned down a case and has provided £2million worth of legal work at no charge.

It has led to her nearly going bankrupt three times and even going without food. She is currently working on 500 cases for nothing.

Her work, which has seen her shortlisted for a human rights award, mirrors the true story of American campaigner Erin Brockovich.

Erin, played by Julia Roberts in the 2000 film, fought for families against an energy giant that contaminated a water supply leaving people with disabilities.

Yvonne is vowing to expand the help she offers after being cleared by the central London tribunal.

"I want a bigger office and I want to take on more staff so we can help even more people," she said.

"I have stood at countless funerals and said goodbye to my clients who died while we tried to save their care home.

"These people are the forgotten victims of a culture where it has become OK to shut a care home and not worry about the devastating impact it has."

Yvonne also says she has weekly calls from disabled clients who phone to say they have been left suicidal at the prospect of benefit cuts.

She added: "I won't stop fighting until people in power give more respect to elderly people living in fear their care home will be closed, or to disabled people left in misery after being denied what they are entitled to. Dignity and respect is the least they deserve."

No One is happier with the decision to let Yvonne carry on as a solicitor than the nine forgotten residents of Rokeby Care Home in Hull.

The council are trying to shut the home - hit by the 2007 floods - and sell it for development. But Yvonne has fought to save it for the past two years - supported by local MP Alan Johnson.

June White, whose mother Hilda Milsom, 92, is at the home, said: "If Yvonne had been struck off they'd have shut it down the next day.

"She's worked round the clock. Mum couldn't cope with the stress of moving to a new home - but of course, nobody wants to hear about that when there's money to be made from selling."

Yvonne paid for independent surveyors, who provided evidence the council had overestimated the cost of rep-airing the flood damage. And when their doctors said the residents were fit to be moved, Yvonne brought in her own medic - who ruled many weren't. The home's future will be decided next month.

Disabled accountant Andrew Norman was rescued by Yvonne after cuts in the home care visits he received from social services left him living in misery.

Wheelchair-bound Andrew, 45, of Milton Keynes, Bucks, who has a muscle-wasting disease, had his daily visits scrapped and was regularly left sitting for days in his own faeces.

But Yvonne put pressure on the local authority to improve his care.

And her fight led to him being moved to a private care home - and 24-hour help. Now she is trying to help him to return home and is battling with Northampton County Council to improve the level of care Andrew receives.

He said: "She has literally saved my life. When I first contacted her I was suicidal because I was being left for days on end with no one coming to help me.

"She has fought tooth and nail for me for no other reason than she cares and has a passion to make sure people get what they are entitled to."

Pensioner Eugene Hide says he owes his life to Yvonne.

The grandfather, 76, from Stone, Staffs, was turfed out of the Rosemead care home in 2006 when his local council sold it off.

Officials then wanted to move Eugene miles from his beloved home-town.

Yvonne worked for free and helped him to be able to live where he wanted.

And he now is happily living at a residential home where he has his own flat.

Dad-of-four Eugene said: "I was just an old man who nobody would listen until I contacted Yvonne.

"The stress of it all made me so ill that I almost died.

"But Yvonne fought tooth and nail for me to be moved to a place I wanted to live.

"She made it happen. It might not seem like a lot to some people but to me and to the hundreds of other pensioners she helps it is the difference between being happy or miserable in your final years. She's a remarkable person."

The mother of an autistic teenager says the decision to allow Yvonne to carry on as a solicitor has given her son a lifeline.

Shirley Dean contacted Yvonne three years ago after discovering her local council were planning to cut the living benefits her son Thomas, 18, received.

Thomas, from Northampton, is unable to speak because of his autism.

But Shirley says Yvonne has given him a voice since taking on his case - on which she has provided hundreds of hours of free advice.

And on Friday, when it was announced she could continue working as a solicitor, Thomas was there at Yvonne's side.

Shirley, 52, said: "Yvonne has worked round the clock on behalf of my son. Since representing Thomas she has secured lifetime funding, which means we don't have worry in the future about cuts to what he receives.

"Thomas can't speak for himself but Yvonne has been by his side and given him a voice. We owe her so much."