Civil Courts: Tribunals Flashcards
What are tribunals?
- Specialist courts that operate alongside the court system
When were tribunals created? Why?
- After WWII as a part of the ‘welfare state’ to enforce people’s social rights
What did the case of Peach Grey v Sommers (1995) confirm?
- That tribunals are inferior to the ordinary courts
What’s the composition of a tribunal? (2)
- Most have a legally qualified chairperson and two lay members, who are usually subject experts
- No formal rules of evidence apply but rules of natural justice must be followed
What are the three types of tribunal?
- Administrative
- Domestic
- Employment
What do administrative tribunals deal with?
- Disputes between individuals and the government
What are domestic tribunals?
- Internal tribunals used for disputes within private bodies, such as the Law Society and the General Medical Council
What do employment tribunals deal with?
- Disputes between employers and employees over rights under employment legislation
What recommendations were implemented in the Tribunals and Inquiries Act 1958?
- Recommendations from the Franks Committee that tribunal procedures should be an example of “openness, fairness and impartiality”
What was set up in 1958? What does it do?
- Council on Tribunals, to supervise and review tribunal procedures
- The Council would deal with complaints and submit recommendations for improvement
What did Sir Andrew Leggat’s report in 2000 do? What did the report say?
- Marked a radical reform of the tribunal system, since he reported that tribunals lacked independence, coherence, and were not user friendly
What did the 2007 Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act do?
- Formalised and implemented most of Leggatt’s reforms
- Contributed to the most radical shake up of the tribunal system seen for many years
What were Leggatt’s four criticisms?
- Tribunals not user friendly
- No uniformity of procedure
- Lack of accessibility to the public
- Lack of independence
List the four implementations of recommendations in the 2007 Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act
- A single tribunal service to be responsible for the administration of all tribunals
- Tribunals should be organised into divisions grouping together similar tribunals
- The system should be user friendly
- Single route of appeal
Why a single tribunal service? (2)
- Makes the tribunal service independent of its relevant government department
- The support that the service gives to tribunals is unified both in procedure and administration
How was the system made more user friendly? (3)
- Users are encouraged to bring their own cases without legal representation
- Written judgements should now be given in plain English
- Information about procedures, venues etc should be made freely available
What are the duties of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council? (3)
- Keeping the workings of tribunals under review
- Reporting on the constitution and working of tribunals
- Considering and reporting on any other matter relating to tribunals
Who appoints tribunal judges?
- The Judicial Appointments Commission
What are the advantages of tribunals? Explain each (5)
- Cost - Parties encouraged to take their own cases without legal representation
- Expertise - at least one Tribunal member will be an expert in the relevant field
- Speed - strict timetables mean that most cases can be heard within one day
- Informality - much less formal than court. Parties benefit from private hearing and have a chance to maintain a relationship
- Independence - the appointment of tribunal judges by the Judicial Appointments Commission makes the system more transparent and independent
What are the disadvantages of tribunals? Explain each (4)
- Lack of funding - legal funding is not always available
- Delay - If the case is complex, there can be a delay in getting the case heard
- Intimidated parties - parties can feel intimidated, especially without legal representation
- Lack of precedent - no strict system of precedent, so there is sometimes an element of unpredictability to the outcome of cases
