The Court of Appeal hears over 1,000 appeals and over 1,000 motions each year.
Published by Paragon Legal Services 04th June, 2021
The legislation provides a right of appeal to requesters and affected parties impacted by a request. The legal term of an individual who makes an appeal is an appellant. The IPC keeps the identity of the appellant confidential in public order regarding the appeal. However, it discloses the identity of the appellant to the institution involved in the appeal.
An individual does not have appeal rights if information is handled outside of the formal access request process. Fees, time extensions and deemed refusals may all be appealed during the request process. For more information on all of these, you can consult with a professional on judicial appeals.
The appeal process has four (4) stages.
Initiating an appeal – Intake – Mediation – Adjudication
The appeal process does not have an official start and end date. The time required for an appeal depends on the complexity of the issues within the appeal, the number of parties involved, and many appeal the IPS is managing. There are however, specific time limits by which institutions must respond to the IPC within the appeal process.
When initiating an appeal, institutions are required to provide requesters information about their appeal rights and process. This information should be provided in fee estimate letters, time extension letters and decision letters. Legislation allows for an agent or counsel to appeal on behalf of an appellant with appropriate authorization.
This should include the appellant’s contact information (giving name, address and telephone number or numbers); the institution’s name and assigned file number; and a brief explanation of the reason for the appeal. You can give this explanation to your legal consultant and they can assist you with filing it in the court.
During the intake stage the IPS screens and appeal and either dismisses, resolves or streams the appeal to a later stage of the process. Analysts screen files where the matter, is not within its jurisdiction or the matter, on its face is one that should not proceed through the appeal process.
A mediator will contract the parties to investigate the circumstances of an appeal and attempt to effect a settlement of the issues. The mediate can review the records and provide the necessary opinion to the parties on the likely outcome of the appeal at adjudication. The mediator can also communicate with the parties involved or engage in shuttle mediation separately with the appellant and the institution. Most appeals are resolved through mediation.
The adjudicator summarizes the background of the appeal and describes the records at issue. Once representations are received from the first party, the adjudicator usually sends a notice of inquiry to the other party or parties inviting representations.
These arguments or evidence presented to the adjudicator persuades the involved parties to resolve the appeal in a particular way. The legislation places the burden of proof on different parties depending on the issue. For more information on filing a judicial appeal, you can contact Paragon Legal Services today.
