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This area of law is rightly called the "wild west" as one poster has already stated because it essentially has no active judicial case management and is open to tactical abuse. Small is right when he says the process is manipulated by either side and is toxic. Look at the claimant firms who are advertising high win rates....they are just as bad as these local authorities. If the Tribunal is not managing these issues (where feelings will be high given the nature of the appeals) then it is inevitable that it will become adversarial. The key must be to ensure greater judicial control over the process - for example, the joint instruction of experts appointed by the Tribunal should be mandatory. If you take the power away from the lawyers you might end up with a much fairer and transparent process which both parties can engage in without lawyers. The Tribunal was never intended to be like the employment tribunal and was supposed to be a family friendly business like forum. The Tribunal has moved far beyond this role currently and this is illustrated by the fact that hearings are being held in the High Court. Never could it be said that such an environment is appropriate for these type of cases. Thus, until the Tribunal is reformed there will always be problems with the process.

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