Hi,

I attended a tribunal over a week ago and have been told by the TS that the decision is being issued today.

I'd been labouring under the delusion that decisions were (and had to be) made on the day of the tribunal, unless the tribunal was formally adjourned. Otherwise how does the appellant know that the decision was made by the tribunal as assembled, rather than the chair having second thoughts later?

This is the first time I've come across this type of delay. I can't find anything in the new tribunal rules about when the decision has to be made, only that they must provide a decision notice as soon as reasonably practicable after making the decision (reg 33).

Any thoughts?

Sue

If your client loses, consider a set aside under rule 2

Rule 2 provides that the overriding objective is to enable Tribunals to deal with cases “fairly and Justly”.

From your question I assume that this was either an incap or a DLA appeal, not judge sitting alone. I know that in difficult cases of law and fact (those 350 page housing benefit living together cases) some judges will occasionally reserve decisions because (a) they need to think about it and (b) the next case is overdue.

I suppose it is possible that if there isn't time to type up all the decsiions on the day (or the computers aren't working!) the Judge might made notes with the help of the members and then type them up next time they are in the tribunal or at home if they are fee paid. The decision would then have to be posted to the office and out again so it might take a few days.

But obviously if the decision was prepared in these cases without input from the other members that isn't on.

I concur with Ariadne but for completeness I'll add, to her A and B, a C): the decision is likely to cause distress.

We're used to the decision being reserved and then posted out later on the same day.

I've now got the decision - it was signed and dated on the day but then not posted until 9 days later. Weird.

Most of the time, I have received decisions on the day, usually wait 10 minutes or so to be typed.

Sometimes, say its the last Tribunal of the day for instance, they are posted and received within 2 days.

On a couple of occasions, however, although the date is the date of the Tribunal there can be a delay of over a week, whether this is due to postal delay is unknown.

All of the Tribunals I deal with are Hb/Ctb.