Is it possible to seek a set-aside of a tribunal's decision when an application for leave has been refused?

The client had a DLA appeal heard on the papers because she thought she'd have to travel to Birmingham (a very common misunderstanding caused by the TAS1). The tribunal upheld the decision on 15/08/08 - correctly in my view given the info available - and client sought reasons.

She completed an application to set aside the tribunal's decision, which I haven't seen, but the upper tribunal refused leave almost a month ago.

Is it still possible to seek a set-aside of the tribunals decision?

Another complicating factor is that the original decision was a renewal claim for a child around the 1st birthday and was made almost a year ago. The child is now two and, as we all know, a child of that age has considerably changing needs in the course of a year which means that evidence gathering will be challenging to say the least.

Even if it is possible to seek a set-aside at this late stage, we're minded to advise client to pursue a new claim since the grounds for an award are weak anyway and, as described, it would be difficult to find appropriate evidence. The medical evidence in the bundle from a surgeon was generally positve. Information about the condition generally (heart condition requiring lifetime pacemaker - rare in children) indicates that it is not likely to lead to any considerable needs post recovery.

Does anyone have any thoughts/knowledge on any of these issues/

Thanks,

As far as I understand it, any application to the Tribunal for leave to appeal has to be considered first as a set aside application. There should somewhere in the system be a decision refusing leave to appeal from the Tribunal if she had to apply for leave to the Upper Tribunal. What grounds were used in the application? If it was arguing with the outcome decision, she might have had an uphill task. If it was on the grounds that she had really wanted to go but had mistakenly believed it would be impossible, then that has already been decided.

Thanks Ariadne,

I only saw the client yesterday and she didn't have a copy of the application for leave. However, she did it herself and had no reason, until meeting me, to realise that her belief regarding the venue was mistaken.

Therefore, I strongly suspect she was merely challenging the outcome decision and probably, but hardly unsurprisingly, did not identify any errors of law. I didn't find any in the SoR.