Tribunals (ADR) Flashcards
Where to tribunals operate?
Tribunals originate alongside the court system and have become an important part of the legal system.
Why were tribunals created?
They were created in order to give people a method of enforcing their entitlement to certain social rights.
Could the parties go to court?
Unlike ADR, where the parties decide not to use the courts, the parties in tribunal cases cannot go to court to resolve their dispute.
The tribunal must be used instead of court proceeding
Tribunals enforce rights which have been granted through?
which have been granted through social and welfare legislation.
Give a list of rights?
The right to a mobility allowance for those who are disabled to walk more than a short distance;
The right to a payment if someone is made redundant;
The right not to be discriminated against because of a person’s race, age, sex or disability; and
The right of immigrants to have a claim for political asylum heard.
There are many other issues a tribunal can hear but these are the main ones.
What was the system before the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007? How many different tribunals were there?
Tribunals were set up as the welfare state developed.
This meant that new developments in welfare resulted in the creation of new tribunals.
Eventually there were more than 70 different types of tribunal.
Each tribunal was separate and the various tribunals used different procedures.
This made the system confused and complicated.
What did the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 do?
The whole system was reformed by the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007.
This created a unified structure for tribunals, with a First-tier Tribunal to hear cases of first instance and an Upper Tribunal to hear appeals.
How many cases does the First-Tier Tribunals hear and how many people work there?
The First-Tier Tribunal deals with about 300,000 cases each year and has nearly 200 judges and 3,600 lay members.
How many chambers (divisions) does the First-Tier Tribunal have?
7
The Social Entitlement Chamber (`1)
this covers a wide range of matters such as child support, criminal injuries compensation and gender recognition.
The Health, Education and Social Care Chamber (1)
this includes the former Mental Health Review Tribunal which dealt with appeals against the continued detention of those in mental hospitals. This Chamber also deals with special educational needs.
What are the other 5 chambers (1)?
The War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Chamber. The General Regulatory Chamber. The Taxation Chamber. The Land, Property and Housing Chamber. The Asylum and Immigration Chamber.
As well as these, there is one tribunal which still operates separately from the First-Tier Tribunal, what is it?
Employment Tribunal.
The Upper Tribunal is separated into how many chambers?
4
What are the four chambers for the Upper Tribunal? What does the Administrative Appeals Chmaber do?
The Administrative Appeals Chamber, which hears appeals from the Social Entitlement Chamber, the Health, Education and Social Care Chamber and the War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Chamber.
The Tax and Chancery Chamber.
The Lands Chamber
The Asylum and Immigration Chamber
From the Upper Tribunal there is a further possible appeal route to where?
To the Court of Appeal and from there to the Supreme Court.
Who hears cases in the First-Tier and what is the exception to that?
Cases in the First-Tier Tribunal are heard by a Tribunal Judge.
Also, for some types of case, two lay members will sit with a judge to make the decision.
For the First-Tier lay members will they have expertise?
Yes, these lay members will have expertise in the particular field of the tribunal, e.g. the lay members in a hearing about a claim for mobility allowance would be medically qualified, or in the Lands Tribunal the lay people will be surveyor.
