Tribunals Flashcards
What are the three types of tribunals?
1) Administrative (deal with disputes between individuals and the state)
2) Domestic (Disputes within private bodies)
3)Employment (Disputes between employers and employees)
State a brief history into tribunals
Dates back to the 20th century when the welfare state developed to give people a method of enforcing their entitlement to certain social rights
e.g right to a payment if made redundant from work
Given the number if potential disputes, the ordinary court system would not be able to deal with it = hence the development of tribunals
What was the conclusion of the 2000 review on tribunals?
Sir Andrew’s Leggatt’s review- “Tribunals for Users- One system, one service”
suggested that tribunals lacked independence, coherence and were not user friendly
radical reforms were suggested:
-a single tribunal service to unify all procedures and administrations
-judgments given in plain english
What happened in 2007?
The Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 formalised and implemented most of Leggatt’s reforms
-The Tribunal Service was established (unified all procedures and created a new structure: First tier tribunals and Upper Tribunals)
How many cases does the First tier tribunals hear each year?
600,000
How many divisions are there within the first tier tribunals?
7 Divisions
including:
-Taxation Chamber
-Social Entertainment Chamber
What is the upper tribunals?
Divided into 4 chambers and hears the appeals
e.g Administration Appeals Chamber hears appeals from the Social Entitlement Chamber
e.g Tax and Chancery chamber hears appeal from the taxation chamber
What can (on a rare occasion) happen in terms of appeal from the upper tribunals?
-Further route of appeal to the Court of appeal on a point of law with leave and then a final appeal to the supreme court, however rarely used due to this well structed system
State the composition of tribunals
First tier cases are heard by a tribunal judge and sometime joined by two lay magistrates
-all members are appointed by the Judicial Appointments Commission
-Entire system headed by the Senior President of Tribunals who is responsible for assigning judges to each chamber and can also issue practice directions to help tribunal judges maintain a unified procedure across all chambers
State the procedure of tribunals
-system considered less formal and designed to encourage individuals to bring their own cases and not use lawyers, but some are still considered more formal
-Both sides must be given the opportunity to put forward their case and helped by the judge
-decisions are legally binding
Briefly state the effectiveness of tribunals
1) Low Costs
2) Expertise
3) Speed
4) Informality
5) Independence
6) Privacy
7) Broad powers
Briefly state the ineffectiveness of tribunals
1) Low State funding
2) Delay
3) Intimidated Parties
4) Limited appeals
5) Lack of Precedent
6) Lack of openness
