High Court Appeals

It’s generally best to steer clear of the High Court.

Registrants and their representatives can be and often are dissatisfied with one of more aspects of a panel’s decision making in their case; but this rarely means that there is an arguable appeal point making it worth the time, stress and most importantly, cost of appealing to the High Court.

Not only is there the cost of paying your own lawyers - if you lose, you will have to pay the costs of the regulator’s lawyers as well. This can mean a bill in the 30s and 40s (thousands).

Last month, one of my clients, a social worker had a very difficult case. It involved accusations of emotional abuse and physical force within two personal relationships. Although the majority of the those charges were found not to be proven, some were found proven; and unfortunately, my client was struck off.

This result was a likely one, if the charges were found proven - but it was my view that the panel should not have found the charges proven, that we had done enough to show the complainants were not being truthful and that in any event, the regulator was dipping into areas in social workers’ private lives that it should not.

As my client had lost their registration, it was incumbent on us to seriously consider whether an appeal should be launched. When doing so, it is essential, in my opinion, to take advise from an experienced appeal barrister. They work in the High Court regularly, they know what arguments are more likely to succeed there than others. My favourite, for many years now, is Rory Dunlop KC. He wasn’t a K.C. when I first instructed him, and his rates have increased somewhat since that first time - but in my eyes, he’s one of the best.

Thankfully, Rory agreed with me that an appeal could be made with good prospects of success and this week the appeal has been filed.

The fight for this registrant’s registration is not over yet…