Decision Making: Reasons, Bias and Challenges
Even a strong, well reasoned decision can fall apart in so many ways. If you don’t prepare and communicate the reasons in a clear, understandable and defensible way, you’re tempting disaster. If you don’t take steps to eliminate any question of bias, even when none exists, things can turn sour quickly. If you aren’t contemplating how a decision could conceivably be challenged from the very start, you’ll regret it if a challenge does arise.
Description
Attend and earn 4 CPD units in Substantive Law
This seminar was recorded in NSW on 12 September 2018
Chair: Andrew Tokley SC, 5 Wentworth Chambers
9.00am to 10.00am: Preparing and Communicating Reasons for Administrative Decisions
- When and why reasons for a decision are required
- Ensuring reasons for a decision are clear, readable and comply with statutory requirements
- Effectively communicating a decision to the person affected and any person, tribunal or court reviewing the decision
- Strategies to reduce the prospects of reasons being challenged
- Case studies and examples: where reasons fail to be adequate, reasonable, understandable and defensible
Presented by Kellie Edwards, Barrister, Greenway Chambers; Recommended Employment & WHS Junior Counsel, Doyle’s Guide 2017
10.00am to 11.00am: Bias in Decision Making: Treading with Caution
- Actual bias: the clear and direct evidence necessary to show that a decision maker was in fact biased
- Apprehended bias and questioning a decision maker’s independence or impartiality: the test and the evidence required to demonstrate apprehended bias
- Categories and examples of apprehended bias: interest, conduct, association, and extraneous information
- Rules for administrative decision makers, the duty of disclosure, and best practices for avoiding a finding of bias
Presented by Peter Berg, Barrister, Second Floor Selborne Chambers
11.00am to 11.15am Morning Tea
11.15am to 12.15pm: Challenges to Administrative Decisions
- The mechanics of challenges and reviews
- Which review? Comparing merits and judicial review
- Case studies and other examples
Presented by Brenda Tronson, Barrister, Level 22 Chambers
12.15pm to 1.15pm: Recent Cases and their Impact on Decision Making and Reason Writing
Analysis of recent appellate cases on administrative law, why they are important, and the critical takeaways for decision making and reason writing.
Presented by Francis Douglas QC, Tenth Floor Chambers and Oliver Jones, Barrister, Fourth Floor Selborne Chambers