Judicial Reviews
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Judicial Reviews
Judicial review (“JR”) is considered as the last resort. In case where there is no right to appeal or Administrative Review (e.g. refusal of Visit applications), where a refusal decision is maintained at an Administrative Review (e.g. for PSB application refusals), and where permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal is refused (see above), an applicant can proceed to a JR claim. Grounds for JR claims are limited (illegality, irrationality and unfairness), where new documents are usually disregarded and the successful party is usually able to recover costs from the unsuccessful party. This is why the prospect of any JR claim needs to be carefully considered and one should not proceed with a meritless claim.
Here at Dr Sonia Khan Solicitors, we are highly experienced and competent at evaluating the merits of JR claims and we rarely proceed to file a JR claim which lacks a reasonable chance of success. This ensures that our clients are not unduly penalised with having to pay the Home Office’s costs. If your claim lacks merit, you can count on us to inform you so and advise you about the alternatives (e.g. making a fresh application with better preparation).
Key stages and timescales (for non-Cart JR):
- Initial Assessment and Pre-Action Stage (upto 6-8 weeks): At this stage, we assess the case, collect documents, review them, advise our clients on merit, prepare and send Letter Before Claim (“LBC”) to the Home Office. In most cases, the Home Office provides a response to the LBC within 14 days of the LBC being served upon them. A positive response from the Home Office usually means a proposal to “reconsider” the case in the next 3 months.
- Issuing JR Claim: If in their response, the Home Office maintains the original decision or if they fail to provide a response within the prescribed time (i.e. a minimum of 14 days from the date of the LBC being served), the Applicant then can proceed to file the JR claim. For Cart JR, the claim needs to be filed within 16 days of the Upper Tribunal’s permission refusal decision, in which case the LBC is not necessary. In other cases, the JR claim must be filed promptly and in any event within 3 months of the date of the decision being challenged.
- Acknowledgement of Service and Summary Grounds of Defence: Within 21 days of the JR claim being served on the Home Office, they are required to file and serve their Acknowledgement of Service. With this, the Home Office either sends a settlement proposal (usually that the decision under challenge would be reconsidered in the next 3 months), or file and serve their Summary Grounds of Defence.
- UT’s decision on paper for permission to proceed with the JR claim: If the claim does not settle shortly after filing of the Acknowledgement of Service, the Tribunal makes a decision (on paper) whether permission should be granted to allow the applicant to proceed with the claim to substantive hearing. Where such permission is granted, the Home Office usually settles the case.
- Renewal hearing: If UT refuses permission on paper (and unless the matter is ruled as “totally without merit”), the applicant has the option (within 9 days), to request for an oral hearing to re-determine the permission issue. At this stage, renewal grounds are submitted on behalf of the applicant, and then the renewal hearing takes place in about 4-16 weeks. If permission is granted at the renewal hearing, then the matter proceeds to substantive hearing. However, in such a case, the Home Office usually seeks to settle the case by proposing to reconsider the visa decision under challenge. If UT refuses permission at the renewal hearing, then the applicant can make an application to the Court of Appeal within 7 days seeking permission to appeal to that court.
- Further grounds, skeletons, and substantive hearing: Following grant of permission to proceed to substantive hearing, if the matter does not settle, then the Home Office files and serves its Detailed Grounds of Defence within the next 35 days and the applicant can provide a reply and submit with further evidence within the following 14 days. Thereafter, at least 21 days before the substantive hearing, the applicant is required to file his skeleton argument and the bundle for the hearing. The Respondent’s skeleton argument is filed and served at least 7 days before the hearing and the applicant files and serves the authorities with the bundle no later than 3 days before the hearing. The Substantive hearing usually takes in 1-2 days.
- Appeal before the Court of Appeal and challenges to more senior courts: For details on these matters, please contact us.
Our fees
We usually charge fees for dealing with immigration and asylum, Judicial Review matters on time-spent basis. For details about this, please visit our Fees {hyperlink} page. We shall provide you with estimate of our fees and disbursements at the outset of our case.
The following court fees are applicable in JR matter:
Issuing claim – £174
Renewal application – £438
Fee for substantive hearing – £874 (minus any £438 if fee for renewal application is paid)
CEO
Dr. Sonia Khan
Phone
+44 (0)7738369514
office@drsoniakhansolicitors.com
Location
Unit 10, 384 Abbott Road, London E14 0UX
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