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Searching
for Social Security Commissioners and Court Decisions
Law Centre (NI) library
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Commissioners Decisions |
The Law Centre holds a selection of
Commissioners Decisions for both GB and Northern Ireland. Reported
decisions for Great Britain are held from 1981, and for
Northern Ireland from 1948. A
selection of unreported decisions, both from GB and NI is
also held, mainly dating from the 1990’s to the present, together
with a few earlier unreported decisions. Decisions can be faxed or posted out
to Law Centre members on request. The librarian works part-time and is currently available all day
Tuesday, all day Thursday and half-day on Friday.
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Court Decisions |
A selection of UK Social Security Court
Decisions is also held in the library and is arranged alphabetically by
the name of the plaintiff.
Selected European Court cases and ECHR
Cases are also available.
Commissioners
decisions on the web
1. Department for Social Development (NI)
www.dsdni.gov.uk
The benefit law section of this site contains
the Northern Ireland Digest of Case-Law (known as NIDOC) which is
maintained by the Decision Making and Appeals Unit of the DSD. It enables access
to important N.I. (generally "reported") decisions from 1972 up to 1999 and all decisions from 2000. You can search by benefit, by
topic or by year.
2. Social Security and Child Support Commissioners
www.osscsc.gov.uk/decisions/decisions.htm
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Selected GB decisions,
2000 – 2001
and all GB unreported decisions from 2002 |
These are scrollable and are listed in date
order. Other access is via a search engine where subject/case reference
number/commissioner’s name etc. can be used to locate particular cases.
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Starred GB decisions, 1990 |
These are listed by starred case number with
summaries and original case number but only some are downloadable. If
reported, the reported number is also given and the full decision can be
printed using the search engine
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Reported GB decisions, 1991 |
Search engine can be used to locate case
reference numbers by plaintiff (higher court decisions) or subject. There is
also a facility for scrolling down the original unreported numbers to find the
reported number.
3. Department for
Work and Pensions (DWP)
www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/docs/commdecs
This website has recently been
restructured and provides an easy route to tracing GB Reported decisions from
1991 onwards, where the decision citation is known.
4.
Rightsnet
If you
are regularly hunting for cases it may be worthwhile subscribing to Rightsnet. In
addition to providing up-to-date news on developments affecting benefits, the
Briefcase
section on Rightsnet contains summaries, arranged by
benefit, of all recent commissioners' decisions.
As well
as this, more than 1500 decisions from the late 1940's to the 1990's, many
unavailable elsewhere on the internet, can be found
here.
www.rightsnet.org.uk
Court decisions
on the web
1. British and Irish Legal
Information Institute
www.bailii.org
Contains
Court of Appeal, High Court and House of Lords decisions for GB, and
N.
Ireland as well as Court decisions from the Republic of Ireland.
2. European Court of
Human Rights Portal (HUDOC)
http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int
A
searchable database covering judgements of the ECHR from1955 on.
3. European Court of
Justice (CURIA)
http://curia.europa.eu/en/content/juris/index_rep.htm
Gives
numerical access to judgements of the ECJ and includes a search facility.
If all else fails
If the case you need is not available
through the Law Centre or on the web you could try contacting in the first
instance :
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The Decision Making and Appeals Unit of
the Department for Social Development (NI) |
Telephone: 028
9072 8736/8731 - and if no luck there:
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The Decisions Section of the Offices of
the GB Social Security Commissioners (OSSC) |
Telephone: 020 7029 9850
Copies obtained from this source
can occasionally be emailed but otherwise attract a
charge of £1 for posting out and £2 for faxing and they like to have the
money in advance.
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Scottish Decisions – Office of the
Social Security Commissioners, Edinburgh |
Telephone: 0131 225 2201 (charge of
approximately £3 for each decision).
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Rightsnet - already
mentioned above (www.rightsnet.org.uk)
as a source for decisions, also contains a discussion
group. Many people with practical knowledge and experience in this area
contribute and there is a general willingness to send copies of decisions
via e-mail or to give help in tracking down decisions relating to a
particular area. |
Law Centre (NI) August 2007
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