Second Attempt

Wilf wrote:

Yes I realise that will be entirely for me to decide but I had asked for YOUR opinion.

Never mind.

Wilf.

You need to bear in mind that boards like this can never provide advice to individual claimants about their specific circumstances, all we can offer is general information about how the system works.

This is because there are huge range of factors which could affect your eligibility and it’s not possible or advisable for you to disclose that information on a public forum or for us to ask you the kind of questions that would be required. This also applies to personal opinions that cannot be substantiated due to a lack of evidence.

We understand that this can be frustrating and that it’s sometimes a question of judgement about the degree to which a question is specific to your claim or more general in nature. But, for our sake and your own it is important that we do our best to stick to giving information rather than advice.

So, for advice about a specific advice you need to contact an advice agency if at all possible.

Hello LD,

The two errors in law in my case were:

1. Failed to deal with my written complaints about the ATOS doctor who came to my home to examine me (he didnt actually examine me at all, he read my specialists report and copied 90% of it).
2. Failed to consider how the instability I had been diagnosed with 18 months earlier might affect my day to day life.

In effect the Tribunal took everything the ATOS doctor said as Gospel and therefore had decided before I got to the Hearing.

However, they did not justify their reasons for refusal (other than their agreement with the ATOS doctor and his view was already in question) in the Statement of Reasons so the Appeal judge ruled in my favour.

Hope that helps you Douglas and good luck.

Wilf

very helpful thank you. my instability was confirmed 19 years ago and has only gotten worse.The doctor sent examined me but has no idea how it effects.its not something you can prod and say its fine.

Hello Douglas,

You are quite right and thats what I tried to explain to my Tribunal. You cant say when you are going to slip a disc can you and if you have degeneration like I have its unlikely to improve, that goes without saying.

As I said, the ATOS doctor argued that it had no effect and the Tribunal took his word for it. The Appeal Judge however said that the Tribunal should have shown in their Statement of Reasons that they had considered what effects, if any, it had on my day to day life. They failed to do this.

Good luck.

Wilf.

Hi Wilf,

Like all of us, tribunals are not infallible and at times they do make mistakes which isn't surprising bearing in mind changes to statute law made by the Upper Tribunal and higher Courts.

We have to bear in mind, that the vast majority of tribunal members, especially those who sit on DLA Tribunals are not employees of the Dept of Justice, but work part-time and receive a fee for each day they sit on a tribunal.

This means that often the tribunal will be chaired by what is now called a Deputy Judge ( formerly called part-time Chairman) who must be a qualified solicitor. Deputy Judges usually only sit on tribunals for one day per week, perhaps two if the Tribunal Service need them.

However, for the more complex cases, the Tribunals Service will always try to ensure that a District or Regional Tribunal Judge is on the panel, as they of course have more experience.

As for the statement of reasons, currently this is compiled from the Judges notes of the proceedings completed by hand, so it's very hard to write everything down 'verbatum', that from my experience is why errors occur.

I understand that in the near future that the proceedings will be recorded; trials are currently being piloted in several regions to discover which method of recording is most appropriate. Trials are also underway for CCTV appeals where the appellant won't need to attend a venue and can if they wish opt to have it from their home.

I'll keep members informed of progress.

Hope this helps to understand why mistakes do occur and the measures the Tribunal Service are taking to ameliorate these problems.

Kind regards.

Jim

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