Page 113 - Solving Housing Disputes

4.30 We recommend the HCRS has within it quality housing advice providers
accessible through various means. There should be a prominent section on
the HCRS portal with a list of housing providers, signposted to users as they
fill out structured questions. Alternatively, an advice platform should be
accessible from the HCRS landing page.
Case workers and cross-referral

4.31 Finally, a key feature of our proposed HCRS is a well-defined role for
“authorised court and tribunal staff” and for those staff and equivalents in redress
schemes to offer procedural assistance, signposting to advice providers and the
capacity to refer disputes to alternative pathways where needed. Some of these
functions are already carried out by HMCTS administrative case officers; for
example in the FTT (PC), where the current “cradle-to-grave” case management
system provides users with a named individual officer responsible for their case.
This officer servers as their main point of contact and can give advice and
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explanations about tribunal procedure throughout the lifetime of the case.

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4.32 JUSTICE’s 2015 report, Delivering Justice in an Age of Austerity and Lord
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Justice Briggs’ Civil Courts Structure Review recommended an expanded and
assistive role for court and tribunal staff in civil disputes through the devolution
of procedural functions ordinarily reserved for judges. The Courts and Tribunals
(Judiciary and Functions of Staff) Act 2018 gives effect to this aspiration, by
allowing “authorised court and tribunal staff to exercise judicial functions where
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procedure rules so provide”. The precise procedural functions exercisable are
at the discretion of jurisdiction-specific rules committees, though the general

323 One of the key criticisms we received from housing lawyers was that widespread retrenchments in
court staff meant it was often impossible to contact a staff member for rudimentary case management
issues.

324 JUSTICE (2015), Delivering Justice in an Age of Austerity, available at available at
http://2bquk8cdew6192tsu41lay8t.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/JUSTICE-
working-party-report-Delivering-Justice-in-an-Age-of-Austerity.pdf

325 Briggs, note 160.

326 Section 3.

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