I.S. - seeming unfair bias to statements

I attended an I.S and overpayment appeal with my client recently, during the hearing she consistently denied her former partner being the father of her first child.

Furthermore I submitted reasons as to why several of the local residents had made statements that my client and her former had been living as man and wife (statements taken by the D.W.P fraud investigators), namely that said former partner had been violent towards at least 2 of them and had recently and previously received a custodial sentence for his behaviour.

When our client moved into the property allegations were made against her by neighbours to one statutory and one voluntary agency these were subsequently establish to be unfounded, our client advised the judge at the hearing that these allegations were made as she was a single parent and this was culturally unacceptable to at least one neighbour.

In short she lost her appeal and we requested statement of reasons for the tribunal decision from the judge he has stated that in all probability the former partner is the father of the first child!!!  There was no mention of potential motivating factors as to why the witnesses had made the statements. Neither did the Judge mention the unfounded allegations made to the statutory and voluntary agency.

Can anyone point me the direction of any ruling that could assist with firming my statement of appeal/set aside.

Thanks

I think it’s really going to come down to whether the Judge has made adequate findings of fact or not based on the evidence before him. I know it sounds obvious, but with cohab appeals especially the evidence is often circumstantial on both sides and can support two opposing points of view. If the Judge has adequately explained why he discounted your client’s oral evidence, for example, and why he prefered some evidence over other evidence, there may be no basis for a successful request for a set-aside/leave to appeal regardless of your own feelings about the client’s credibility. I’ve certainly had those cases where I believed (and believe) the client but the tribunal didn’t and sometimes there just isn’t anything you can do about it. On the other hand, if the Judge hasn’t provided an adequate explanation as to why (for example) he found the client’s evidence inherrently improbable or contradictory you may well have grounds for arguing he has made inadequate finding of facts.

Sorry- probably not much help to you really…

i agree with 1964 - it’s all about tribunal’s reasons and whether adequate.  i think the tribunal should have talked about the evidence of bias on part of neighbours and ex partner’s aggression and explained why rejected.  should also have given reasons for finding that ex was probably father of child.

there are lots of decisions about duty to consider evidence and give reasons for accepting or rejecting it -

i just searched for ‘evidence’ in briefcase and came up with long list -

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/search/briefcase/search&channel=briefcase&order=num_p3+desc+real_num_p1+asc+num_p2+desc&keywords=evidence&date-from=20020101&date-to=20141231/

not all relevant clearly but a lot talk about tribunal’s duty towards evidence.

cheers ros

1964 - 09 April 2014 02:45 PM

I think it’s really going to come down to whether the Judge has made adequate findings of fact or not based on the evidence before him. I know it sounds obvious, but with cohab appeals especially the evidence is often circumstantial on both sides and can support two opposing points of view. If the Judge has adequately explained why he discounted your client’s oral evidence, for example, and why he prefered some evidence over other evidence, there may be no basis for a successful request for a set-aside/leave to appeal regardless of your own feelings about the client’s credibility. I’ve certainly had those cases where I believed (and believe) the client but the tribunal didn’t and sometimes there just isn’t anything you can do about it. On the other hand, if the Judge hasn’t provided an adequate explanation as to why (for example) he found the client’s evidence inherrently improbable or contradictory you may well have grounds for arguing he has made inadequate finding of facts.

Sorry- probably not much help to you really…

Thanks for the reply the judge did not really explain why he discounted our evidence .. However our client did state that she told an untruth during the DWP investigation/interview .. But stated she felt under pressure .. It was really about the surname of the child, but she did give an Adequate reason

ros - 09 April 2014 03:06 PM

i agree with 1964 - it’s all about tribunal’s reasons and whether adequate.  i think the tribunal should have talked about the evidence of bias on part of neighbours and ex partner’s aggression and explained why rejected.  should also have given reasons for finding that ex was probably father of child.

there are lots of decisions about duty to consider evidence and give reasons for accepting or rejecting it -

i just searched for ‘evidence’ in briefcase and came up with long list -

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/search/briefcase/search&channel=briefcase&order=num_p3+desc+real_num_p1+asc+num_p2+desc&keywords=evidence&date-from=20020101&date-to=20141231/

not all relevant clearly but a lot talk about tribunal’s duty towards evidence.

cheers ros

Thanks Ros

This does assist.

I also look forward to hearings being taped as in other courts.