Make tribunal rules easy for lay people to follow, Faculty urges

Stating a final date for applying for permission to appeal, rather than a set period, would help avoid confusion for lay people conducting their cases before Scottish Tribunals, the Faculty of Advocates argues today.

The comments come in the Faculty's response to the Scottish Government's draft regulations to be made under the Tribunals (Scotland) Act 2014, covering time limits for appeal, and offences, among other things.

Regarding the proposed time limit of 30 days to submit an application for permission to appeal, Faculty would prefer the wording used for the UK Upper Tribunal of “no later than… a month after” the relevant date, to ensure uniformity and to reduce the likelihood of mistakes by persons who deal with both the UK Upper Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal for Scotland.

However it adds: "Given that lay representatives may be involved in a tribunal context, we consider that it would be preferable to give parties clear dates to work towards… Although tribunals may be sympathetic to mistakes, in order to ensure that lay representatives understand what is required, a tribunal issuing a decision should be required to indicate the actual date by which permission to appeal has to be made."

Faculty also proposes that consideration be given to the issuing of a timetable once permission to appeal has been granted, setting out the relevant dates for lodging of the notice of appeal, response to the notice of appeal and any reply.

On the rule providing for mandatory dismissal after failure to comply with an order warning that dismissal would follow in the event of non-compliance, Faculty suggests that this may be too severe and that there could be circumstances where there is some reasonable excuse for failure to comply: the tribunal should retain some discretion.

It also argues for greater clarity in the proposed offence of making false statements, "by requiring, as a minimum, that the false statement is made knowingly or with no honest belief in its truth", and that the rules should ensure that in certain circumstances people receive a clear written warning that they might be committing a criminal offence.

Click here to view the full response.