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Judicial Review: Procedure Guide
In a simple case the judge may make a decision
at the end of the court hearing. However, it is more usual for the
judge to go away and produce a detailed, written decision, known as
a 'reserved judgment', which is then emailed to us and to the opponent.
Sometimes this can take several weeks.
When deciding a judicial review case the judge has to make two decisions.
First, the judge has to decide whether the public authority has acted
unlawfully.
Second, if they have acted unlawfully, the judge then has to decide
what steps the public authority should take to put things right. This
second part of the judge's decision is critical and it is important
to understand what the judge will and will not do.
For example:
If you are challenging a decision the judge may tell the
opponent that the decision cannot stand and that the opponent
must go away and reach a new decision. However, the judge
will not normally step in and make the new decision in place
of the public authority.
If you are challenging a policy the judge may tell the
opponent that the policy is unlawful and tell the opponent
to go away and rewrite it. However, the judge will not normally
rewrite the policy.
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So you could win the case, but the opponent could
still avoid doing what you want them to by reaching a new, negative
decision or by re-writing the policy but not making all the changes
to the policy that you want.
However, in our experience, most public authorities who lose judicial
review cases are keen to avoid a further court case and so they do
end up reversing their decisions and they do end up making appropriate
changes to their policies.
Finally, if either you or the opponent is dissatisfied with the outcome
of the final hearing it may be possible to appeal.
If you want to appeal you have to act quickly because normally the
appeal paperwork has to be submitted to the court within twenty-one
days of the judge's decision.
If you are considering bringing an appeal we will provide you with
more detailed information about what is involved.
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