Tribunals Flashcards
What are the two levels of tribunals?
- First tier tribunal
- Upper tribunal (senior court) - hears appeals from the first tier
What are the seven first tier tribunals?
- War Pensions and Armed Forced Compensation Chamber
- Social Entitlement Chamber
- Health, Education and Social Care Chamber
- General Regulatory Chamber
- Tax Chamber
- Immigration and Asylum Chamber
- Property Chamber
What are the four chambers in the upper tribunal?
- Administrative Appeals Chamber
- Tax and Chancery Chamber
- Immigration and Asylum Chamber
- Lands Chamber
What appeals does the Administrative Appeals Chamber hear?
- War Pensions and Armed Forced Compensation Chamber
- Social Entitlement Chamber
- Health, Education and Social Care Chamber
- General Regulatory Chamber
What appeals does the Tax and Chancery Chamber hear?
Tax Chamber
What appeals does the Immigration and Asylum Chamber hear?
Immigration and Asylum Chamber (FTT)
What appeals does the Lands Chamber hear?
Property Chamber
What the senior president of tribunals role?
Independent and statutory leader of the tribunal judiciary
Heads the tribunals judiciary
What is the tribunal or Chambers President?
Responsible for the day-to day judicial administration of their chamber or tribunal.
Who are tribunal judges?
Legally qualified and responsible for ensuring the individual tribunal hearings they chair make the correct decision in law.
Who are tribunal members?
They are specialist non-legally qualified ‘lay’ members of the panel hearing the case.
What is the coroner’s court?
Coroners investigate all deaths where the cause is unknown or where there is reason to think it was not sue to natural causes. Called ‘inquests’.
Will hear evidence from people involved in events leading up to the death of the deceased.
Not as formal but parties may be represented by lawyers and there may be an examination of witnesses - juries will be convened to decide the cause of death in some cases (especially where the deceased died in state custody).
Coroners are barristers, solicitors or medical practitioners of not less than five years standing who continue in their medical or legal practices when not sitting as coroners.
A Coroner’s decision is called a verdict.
What is the justification for a public inquiry?
Existence of public concern about a particular event or series of events.
Wide range of topics: transport accidents, fires, UK’s role in the Iraq war
What powers does an inquiry have?
- Legal powers to compel witnesses to give evidence
- Legal safeguards and procedures
- Statutory framework for appointment of a chair and other inquiry personnel, taking of evidence and production of a report and recommendations
BUT nothing to compel the government to act on the recommendations of a statutory public inquiry.
