Urgent claims for the gravely ill

The Tribunal has provisions for expediting the hearing of a claim where the plaintiff is gravely ill. 

This usually involves a plaintiff receiving a prognosis from a specialist that he or she does not have long to live. An application can be made for an urgent hearing to consider if the Tribunal can remove a matter from the Claims Resolution Process to take the plaintiff’s evidence at a bedside hearing.   

Advice to Practitioners No. 1 of 2019 outlines the steps involved in making an urgent approach to a judge.

Other provisions include:

Urgent Statements of Claim

A statement of claim can be filed outside normal registry hours by email or fax where needed. Details are outlined in Advice to Practitioners No 2 of 2013.

Digital evidence in urgent matters

A party to proceedings in the Tribunal can make use of the Video Courtroom to  enable a witness to give evidence from another location via video link. Usually a request to use the Video Courtroom should be made to a Judge at a Directions Hearing no later than 7 days before the Judgment. However, in urgent cases, the Tribunal may shorten the time.