Statement of Reasons after First Tier Tribunal - Advice and Tips please

Hello MDBond,

I've been following your posts about all this because, having suffered with endometriosis myself for over forty years, I find much of what you have written is familiar to me and I sympathise with your situation. I haven't much experience of the judicial system, so I'm no expert, but it seems to me that the tribunal panel might be contradicting themselves when they mention your "help-seeking" behaviour, then note that you were "passive" in your approach to seeking treatment. Of course, this is not an error of law or of fact, which is what you need to get the decision set aside, just an observation based on your transcript of the WSOR.

There is quite a lot of information on Wikipedia about help-seeking behaviour - I'd never heard this term before, but I was curious, so looked it up. It appears it can be positive or negative, depending on your viewpoint and so I wondered if you might be able to use it to your advantage to show that you have, in fact, been pro-active in seeking treatment.

However, it seems clear to me from your account that, much to my disappointment, there is still no very effective treatment for endometriosis if mefenamic acid is still regarded as the preferred medication. In my experience, it was never very helpful and I didn't even realise it was considered to provide pain relief! (I thought it was supposed to slow the bleeding.) Over the years, I also tried various hormone treatments as they became available, all of which, in my case, made my symptoms worse, so I can well understand your reluctance to experiment with too many different remedies. It's bad enough trying to manage the symptoms without having to worry about coping with the unwanted side effects of new medication. This is what people do not seem to understand about endometriosis - there is very little in the way of effective treatment and it is all about managing the condition yourself on a day-to-day basis.

I'm afraid I don't have much advice to offer, but there is an organisation called Fightback4 justice which offers help with tribunals (by e-mail and phone, according to their website), if you are unable to find help near you.

On a more positive note, have you seen this week's newsletter? There is an account of an award made recently for endometriosis, so it seems there is hope!

Good luck with whatever you decide to do next.

Wendy

Hi Chris

Thanks, I will try to call the CAB, their hours are limited and I'm not expecting positive news but I will try this out shortly.

Hi Wendy

Thank you so much for your helpful post and for your empathy as a fellow sufferer. Every bit of input helps.
I'm sorry I wasn't able to reply last week, as I became unwell and still not great to be honest.
Yes there is no other alternative medication for endometriosis sadly, or none that has been suggested to me by any GP, so I doubt there is anything and yes I agree - all you can do with this condition is manage it, there is no 'cure' so I find it mad that the panel and DWP are taking the opposite stance.

Many thanks for looking into 'help seeking behaviour'. I did the same after your post and yes I found all the information contradictory. Also the panel didn't make it clear whether what I was doing - didn't say what that was either - was good or bad. So really looking it up has not helped at all.

From the research I've done, this is in itself an error of law as the statement of reasons needs to be understandable and logical to me. Also most things like this need to be put to me in the Tribunal. I can't just be expected to know what the panel are on about if nothing has been explained to me anywhere at all. The lack of any explanation shows the panel haven't done their job fairly, due to lack of explanation which results in confusion. So I'm using this point as another error of law.

Yes the panel have contradicted themselves as you said. I've used that as a point to express again how their statement of reasons makes no sense and lacks a logical flow.

Thanks so much for supplying the details of that organisation! I will certainly contact them when I feel up to it.
For now I have decided to write my appeal myself and muddle through it as best I can, as I understand there is no further help for me on here.

From what I understand the appeal judges are meant to try and help unrepresented claimants to find appeal points so I hope they will be lenient towards me and my lack of legal knowledge.

It is just there are SO many errors of law here, mostly from the panel ignoring my evidence or what I told them which is stupid as it can all be easily evidenced. I've nearly written 40 sides of A4 and I'm not finished yet.

It really winds me up that I'm having to write all of this down and it will take me a huge amount of time, yet the panel are going to continue in their jobs with no sanctions at all and keep doing this to other claimants. One or two things I can understand, but I'm on my 20th error of law now. Yes they are all errors of law, as in completely ignoring evidence, which can easily be proven. At least one is material but I believe there are more, I just can't recall at the moment.

I'm not sure if it will help but once I've done this - God knows when that will be - I'm going to ask HMCTS if they can take action against the panel because surely it is not right to ignore so much evidence? And I will say the JCIO pretty much also ignored everything so I don't see the point in going back to them.

Thanks for all your help Wendy, I will be in touch if I have any updates.

Hello again MDB,

Thank you for replying to my last post - I assumed you were either unwell or busy working on your next submission. I'm so sorry I can't help any further - I really think you need the help of an experienced disability rights lawyer at this stage - but I wish you luck with your fight. I admire your persistence as I could not have done all this myself - I just wouldn't have the confidence.

Best wishes,

Wendy

Don't forget, MDB and others, that a possibility is Kester Disability rights. They are very transparent, the deal is if they help win and only if they win, your Tribunal you will pay 30% of the back pay, nothing further. From the website:
"You can’t lose with Kester Disability Rights, because all our resources and advice are FREE and the only time the question of a charge arises is if we take on your case and then only if we WIN.
Charges are capped at 30% of the total gained. No other charges whatsoever.
We are not-for-profit with all money raised from cases being reinvested to maintain and grow services.
Independence is guaranteed by all funding coming from disabled people so we are a rights-based service. "
Hope this may help those who need assistance.
Denby