hi, can anyone help - i am looking for a copy of this decision for an appeal to the commissioners. have tried the usual searches to no avail! this is an extract from decision:

“Thirdly I consider that the tribunal acted in breach of the requirements of natural justice by failing to give the claimant any opportunity to comment on the conclusions which they were minded to draw as a result of their observations of her in the tribunal room. The claimant in this case was therefore deprived of an opportunity of explaining to the tribunal how the way in which she entered the tribunal room and sat down was consistent with the difficulties in walking which she claimed.”

Thanks

CDLA/849/1999 is now available on rightsnet.

In a decision issued at the end of last month, CDLA/145/2006, Commissioner Jacobs discusses the use, as evidence, of observations made at a hearing and holds that -

'If an observation is used purely as confirmation of a conclusion that the tribunal would have reached anyway, there is no need for a tribunal to investigate it further or for the claimant to have a chance to comment on it. However, if an observation is one of the factors taken into account in reaching a conclusion, any failure in the tribunal’s inquisitorial duty or violation of the right to a fair hearing will mean that the decision is wrong in law.'