Judicial Review

Judicial review is a type of court proceeding in which a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body. These include the types of decision, which may fall within the range of judicial review include, such as decisions of local authorities in the exercise of their duties to provide various welfare benefits and special education for children in need of such education, certain decisions of the immigration authorities and the Immigration and Asylum Chamber, decisions of regulatory bodies, decisions relating to prisoner’s rights.

There are generally three grounds on which an application for Judicial Review can be brought in the Upper Tribunal or Administrative Court and they can be brought on more than one ground. These include illegality, procedural impropriety and irrationality/proportionality.

Before issuing Judicial Review proceedings, the claimant is normally expected to write a letter notifying the public authority of its intention to bring a judicial review claim and its reasons for doing so.

This letter is referred to as a Judicial Review Pre-Action Protocol, Letter Before Claim. The public authority is expected to reply within a prescribed period of usually 14 days.

However, this period can be shorter, depending on the urgency of the relief sought, particularly in circumstances where an individual is being deprived of liberty (unlawful detention) or basic human rights or in the context of immigration and asylum law, is faced with imminent removal from the United Kingdom.

A claim for Judicial Review must be brought “promptly, and in any event within three months” of the decision being made. The court takes time limits extremely seriously.

In the context of the asylum and immigration law and human rights applications, the Judicial Review applications mainly consist on certification of asylum and human rights claims as clearly unfounded.

Unlawful removal of an individual from the United Kingdom, unlawful detention whilst an asylum and/or human rights claim is being considered or in the cases where the Applicant is deemed to be a victim of torture, human trafficking or modern day slavery or in the instances where a decision to treat an applicant’s fresh claim representations as falling within the meaning or paragraph 353 of the Immigration rules, as well as Competent Authority conclusive grounds decisions on victims of trafficking.

In terms of any other immigration applications, these involve certification of claims as clearly unfounded, refusal of the applications without an in-country right of appeal and some forms of decisions concerning deportation of foreign criminals.

All challenges concerning immigration decisions must be brought in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the Upper Tribunal. Any Judicial Review Applications challenging UK primary legislation, unlawful detention or challenges related to grant or removal of British citizenship must be filed in the Administrative Court.

Help you correct injustices by public bodies

At Oliver & Hasani Solicitors we have a team of very experienced solicitors on Judicial Review application, with Naim Hasani being the lead solicitor and director, who has constantly undertaken judicial review work without interruption for at least 19 years. We have other team members that have developed a very strong knowledge and understanding in all aspects of Judicial Review.

We have successfully represented many clients on their applications for judicial review to the Upper Tribunal and Administrative Court and their upwards appeals to the Court of Appeal and the United Kingdom Supreme Court.

Public Law

Public law is a set of legal principles which govern the manner in which public authorities exercise their power. Government departments, such as UK Visas and Immigration, local authorities, police and prisons are all public bodies. Some organisations, whilst not government departments can still be public bodies if their function is to provide or discharge a public function, such as a private company running an Immigration Detention Centre.

Where a public body such as the Home Office makes a decision that affects an individual, if that decision is made on a wrong understanding of the law or facts or is made through a process that is unfair or biased, the person affected by that decision can take action to challenge that decision by pursuing an appeal against that decision (if there is a right of appeal), by pursuing a complaint or by making a claim for judicial review.

The team you need

Naim Hasani has been undertaking Judicial Review or Public Law challenges against public authorities for many years now and for his distinguished career, he was also nominated by the Law Society of England and Wales as Human Rights Lawyer of the Year 2018.

He successfully represented the two claimants on ground breaking UK Supreme Court ruling on R (Hysaj & Ors) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] UKSC 82 – This profoundly changed the way on which the British nationality deprivation and nullity doctrine are applied on English law.