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Legal News

Judicial Review in the Upper Tribunal (25 July 2016)

Date: 25/07/2016
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Judicial  Review in the Upper Tribunal

A significant practical problem is the lack of direction on how to actually make an application at the Upper Tribunal. At a time of increasing numbers of distressed applicants all looking to have their accounts heard, this causes considerable distress not just to the applicant’s but also to those representing them.

The Upper Tribunal website says that the completed claim form should be ‘sent’ to the Upper Tribunal at Field House. No indication as to the method in which it needs to be issued, is given. Furthermore, the website simply states that the issuing counter closes at 4:15 pm. One would only assume that this meant all judicial review applications needed to be lodged before this time.

This issue was raised in the Administrative Court at a renewal hearing for judicial review against the Upper Tribunal which took place in front of Mr Justice Blake on 12 May 2016. The hearing was based on the current lodging restrictions in place at the Tribunal. Permission on the papers was refused by Mr Justice Cranston in this case on the premise that the Claimant could always file a non-urgent application as an urgent one at the Upper Tribunal after 2:30 pm, which remains the current cut off point.

There has been much debate around when you have to lodge urgent and non-urgent judicial review applications at the Upper Tribunal and more so as to what is considered as an “urgent” application.

On 12 May 2016 some light was shed on this topic by Mr Justice Blake at this renewal hearing. Blake J outlined three possible options when it came to lodging judicial review applications which were coming up to the end of their lodgement periods either due to limitation, or because there were removal directions set which did not need interim relief. He explained each one of the options would provide sufficiency of protection to an applicant.

The first option was to lodge an application with the Upper Tribunal as a matter requiring urgent consideration. On the application it would need to be said that no judicial order was needed and that only the issue number was required in order to stay any removal.

The second option was to lodge an application at the Administrative Court and in any event once the interim relief had been granted, the matter would be transferred to the Upper Tribunal.

The third option applied to when lodging the application before 4.15 pm at the Upper Tribunal, was not possible. Blake J advised to approach the Out of Hours Judge at the Administrative Court seeking interim relief with an undertaking explaining that the Judicial Review would be filed at the Upper Tribunal the following day.

Blake J went on to say that - “Practice must be as fair as the procedure and to achieve this, the Courts and Tribunals work in a certain degree of harmony with one another”.

He agreed with the current lodging restrictions in place at the Upper Tribunal and explained that they have been implemented to allow those applicants who do actually have urgent applications to make them in time before 4:15 pm. If these time restrictions were not in place, the Tribunal would be inundated with non-urgent applications coming through right up until close of day.

The deliberation around lodgement periods at the Upper Tribunal remains an on-going one and we are yet to be advised by the President of the Upper Tribunal of any amendments that are to be made procedurally which will in turn assist with this continuing quandary.

About the Author

Roshni Jobanputra is a Solicitor within the Public Law department at Duncan Lewis. She is committed to ensuring that all her clients who have been at the wrong end of a government decision which has been made unjustly or unlawfully made, are provided with the support to seek redress for any loss they have suffered.

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