Case Law at Tribunal

ambertie121 wrote:

I have my tribunal for DLA in a couple of weeks. I have not got a representative as funding for CAB etc was cut in my area. I am getting additional evidence together that I feel may be useful. I have read bits of case law that could potentially describe my case too, but am reluctant whether I should present this case law, and how - and start going down a route with case law when I do not have any legal representation. Any advice would be much appreciated.

A couple of quick points first, make it clear on your submission that you have no represenatation, even in the preperation of your papers. Secondly, if you have not submitted all of your evidence or submission yet, then you need to get it to the Tribunal Service as quickly as possible, the worst thing you can do, is turn up on the day with more papers for the panel to read.

With regard the case law, as this is in the public domain there should be no problem with you referencing it. What I would advise you to do is to include a full copy of each judgement you are using in your submission, make sure it is clearly referenced, then in you main submission, include the section that you believe is relevant to your case, make sure that the paragraph number(s) are included, a refence to both the actual case law (basically the top section of the case law), and where it is in your submission (at the very least the page number).

If you can, get someone to check it and make sure they can find everything you are referring to, if they struggle to, think about how you can improve the access.

Best of luck.

Gordon

ambertie121 wrote:

Gordon

Many thanks for such a quick response.

Where would I find a full copy of the judgements to which I am referring please?

Anne

You can either Google the case number or use the Tribunal Service search engine, I'd recommend the former unless you can't find one, as the search engine is pretty poor unless you know exactly what you are looking for.

www.osscsc.gov.uk/Aspx/view.aspx?id=3521

The case law documents are Word documents, and you should be able to save a copy to your computer.

Gordon

Hi Jim

Whilst I agree that less is more is a good approach to tribunal submissions, I've seen to many reports where the author made their point in two pages, when a carefully though out paragraph could have achieved the same. In this case my advice was prompted by comments by Judge Boyd, a serving benefit Tribunal judge.

His view is that those making submissions to the tribunal, should not assume that the panel have an understanding of, access to, or even the time, to access the case law that is being referred to, and would always want a full copy attached. He illustrates the point by referring to a case he was hearing, where despite an extensive internet search on his part, he was unable to locate the details of a case referred to for a hearing the next morning.

Perhaps, a reasonable compromise that serves Ambertie's best interest is to suggest that they include a web link to the full adjudication document, of each case that they wish to refer to in their submission.

After all the important thing is is to make these matters as easy for the Tribunal memebers as possible.

Gordon

Gordon