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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Decision making and appeals  →  Thread

record of proceedings? help!

peer advocate
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DATUS - enabling recovery. Birmingham

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Joined: 4 April 2016

Hi all,

So I am in the process of making my first ever request for permission to appeal to the UTT.

I have been scouring the SOR, identified several potential errors of law and begun composing a submission but I have only just realised that the judge makes reference to his record of proceedings that I don’t have a copy of.

Should I have been sent this automatically with the statement of reasons?

Was I supposed to specifically request this?

I only have a few days left to get my submission in and am panicking slightly as I have only just realised I am missing this crucial evidence. What should I do?

Mike Hughes
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Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

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1) Don’t panic. If you’ve already identified errors of law then you’re most of the way there. It’s not uncommon for local applications to be refused regardless of the merits. The direct application to London usually gets a better hearing.

2) Yes, you would normally request an SoR and a RoP. Sometimes the latter highlight blatant contradictions and sometimes not. However, if you don’t ask you don’t get.

3) Don’t delay. Just submit. Leave may be refused anyway so if the RoP is requested and arrives in the meantime then your second bite of the cherry via a direct application will have even more detail.

past caring
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Welfare Rights Adviser - Southwark Law Centre, Peckham

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1. Request the RoP

2. Do you absolutely need the RoP to establish the errors you are arguing for? Sometimes you do need the record, but sometimes not. If the RoP is essential then make an in-time application for an extension of time. Depending on how reliant the SoR is on the RoP (i.e. can one really only make sense of former if you have the latter?) it may even be arguable that you’ve not actually had the ‘full’ SoR as yet…..

It always used to be the case that you needed to request both - and even where you did, the RoP was often missing. But in the last couple of years what I’ve noticed (though I’m unsure whether things have been the same outside the South East tribunal region) is that a request for a Statement of Reasons results in the Record of Proceedings being sent out automatically, usually within 2-3 weeks and very often some months before the Statement itself actually arrives.

That said, HMCTS admin appears to be in such a mess at the moment that even if the process I’ve outlined is the official procedure, it wouldn’t surprise me if it weren’t followed…...

Mike Hughes
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Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

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Total Posts: 3138

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Had a couple of examples recently of advisers only requesting the SoR and only getting the SoR. I suspect it depends on which judge.

Have had some resolutely refuse to provide if outside the one month and others who volunteer it whether requested or not.

peer advocate
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DATUS - enabling recovery. Birmingham

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Thanks very much for the replies, I have posted my submission today and included a request for the ROP. Fingers crossed!