The case is won at tribunal but the other side decide to appeal to the Commissioners. Has anyone had experience of deciding to concede an appeal in order to get the case remitted back to another tribunal hearing as quickly as possible? Tactics - pros and cons etc. In this case we can dealy waiting for the outcome of an appeal to the Commissioners, one tactic might be to agree with grounds for appeal in order to get case listed for another hearing.

I don't think you can achieve the outcome you are seeking by "conceding" an appeal.

In my view, the correct approach is to concede that the Tribunal erred in law and asking that that the Cmmr remits the case back for a fresh hearing. You also have the option of asking that the Cmmr subsitutes his/her own decision.

It could be that the "other side" are perfectly happy with a new hearing, but they can also ask the Cmmr to substitute his/her own decision, irrespective of your desire for a new hearing. Then it's upto the Cmmr to decide whether to remit, or substitute.

One other point: If the case is remitted for rehearing, bear in mind that the Cmmr can issue directions. Dependig on the nature of the directions, it's conceivable your case could be adversely affected.

Hope this helps.

Sorry for asaking an obvious question, but wWhywould you want to do that?, areyou sayingthat you are not that happy with the Tribunal's decision (eg. a lower rate/less generous award than you had hoped for?), and feel that the decision is not worth defending, or what (or do you yourself think it is erroneous in point of law?).

The client is not in a position to wait for the lenghty delay in appeal going to Commissioner. We may have to concede error in law, even though we don't think there is!, as a means of getting this back to a tribunal asap. The case was sucessful at Tribunal, it involves refusal of benefit and there will be considerable hardship caused by delays it if this goes through to Commissioners.

1. If the case is at the stage where the DWP have asked the Tribunal Service for permission to appeal and the claimant representative also expresses the view that the decision of the Tribunal is in error of law then the District Chairman has no choice but to set aside the decision and the case will be relisted (see sec 13(3) SSA 1998).

2. Might a better option (than making a concession on error of law that you do not in fact agree with...) be to press the DWP to make payment in any event. There is provision for them to do this (see the suspension regulation Reg 16(3)(b) in D&A Regs 1999 etc etc). We have seen quite a few Right to Reside cases where the SSWP has agreed to make payment despite appealing the Tribunal success.

You would have to be pretty convinced that another Tribunal would be very likely to give an equally generous award, as otherwise, the client may well gain a more quickly made, but worse decision.