With his track record of providing legal aid and assistance to thousands of expats, advocate Femin Panikkassery, an Indian lawyer, has been supporting distressed residents in the UAE since 2005. During the coronavirus pandemic, he has been a huge support to families in the UAE who have lost their jobs or have had salary-related issues with employers, as well as end-of-service-benefit issues. “We give proper guidance and provide all kinds of legal services to people to offer them a better life,” said Panikkassery.
A social worker who’s been providing legal services to the underprivileged for years, Panikkassery explains that people’s lack of understanding of the law, including their rights and privileges, has been a main cause of legal issues faced in the region. He advises to approach licensed legal consultants to solve their legal issues. “Recently a family of accident victims were duped by middlemen who managed to get a power of attorney from dependents of the deceased, but did not hand over any compensation to the family,” says Panikkassery.
Panikkassery’s professional achievements over the years have made him a trusted name in the community. Recently an Indian national was awarded an amount of Dh2 million as compensation for a motor vehicle accident by Dubai Court through his support and guidance, reiterating his skills as a legal professional.
In line with his legal advocacy, Panikkassery was recently appointed as a legal consultant for the Pravasi Legal Aid Cell (PLAC) for Sharjah, an initiative of Norka-Roots, a government of Kerala undertaking. “During the current coronavirus pandemic, most of the enquiries that we have addressed have been mainly related to unpaid leave, salary cuts, redundancies of jobs, termination rules,” he says. “However, we deal with all kinds of litigations – from criminal and civil cases, to labour issues, accident and death claims.”
As businesses have opened up in the UAE, and life is slowly returning to normal, he has been advising workers and the greater Indian diaspora to follow the UAE government’s preventive measures and observe social distancing.
Femin Panikkassery runs his own legal firm, Global Links Legal Consultants LLC, in partnership with Abdalla Al Naqbi Advocates and Legal Consultants, with offices in Sharjah and Dubai. For legal advice and help, email adv4justice@gmail.com.
