BE (Solicitors Without Instructions to Withdraw)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mr J Freeman,Mr R Baines |
| Judgment Date | 11 October 2017 |
| Neutral Citation | [2003] UKIAT 64 |
| Court | Immigration Appeals Tribunal |
| Date | 11 October 2017 |
[2003] UKIAT 64
IMMIGRATION APPEAL TRIBUNAL
Mr J Freeman (Chairman)
Mr R Baines JP
BE (Solicitors Without Instructions to Withdraw) Sierra Leone
This is an appeal by someone who claimed to be a citizen of Sierra Leone against the decision of an adjudicator, Mr J G Peart, sitting at Taylor House on 20 February 2003 dismissing his appeal against removal directions as an illegal entrant given on 1 November 2002. The appeal was listed on that day before the adjudicator as a full hearing, on the basis of a reply to directions given by the appellant's solicitors (G Singh, Ealing) at an earlier stage.
Nevertheless, when the case came before the adjudicator on 20 February, he was faced with a letter from those solicitors dated 19 February saying that they neither had instructions from the appellant nor were in funds and so had not been able to instruct counsel. They went on: “Our client was supposed to attend our office at 4 pm today. He has informed us that he is not feeling well and he will be forwarding a medical certificate to the court”. There was also a medical certificate faxed to the appellate authority on the very day of the hearing at 11.40 from Dr A Khatri giving the appellant's name and address and certifying that he “is not feeling well, depressed, backache, chest pain, anxious, insomnia, not feeling fit to attend court today”.
The adjudicator proceeded with the hearing in the absence of the appellant and his solicitors and with those two documents in front of him, we have no doubt whatsoever that he was entitled to do so. We note that the GP went no further than to say that the appellant was not feeling [our emphasis] fit to attend court on the day in question: clearly he did not hazard his own professional opinion on the point, and we think with good reason. None of the claimed symptoms, separately or together, would in our view have justified an adjournment.
The appellant was quite remarkably fortunate to get permission to appeal on the basis he did. The correctness of that view has been to a considerable extent borne out by a faxed letter which the solicitors sent us when we made enquiries as to why there had been no appearance before us. We refer to the above matter and wish to confirm that we have not received any instructions from Mr Baniyan. We had sent him...
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