Monitoring the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 - Centre for ...

Legal issues
Lack of understanding of key legal issues was experienced as
a barrier to fully participating in the tribunal process. As
mentioned above, the DDA definition of a disabled person
continues to confuse applicants. But many respondents also
admitted that they were not clear how to apply the definition
of a disabled person to individuals in their organisations.
Both applicants and respondents singled out mental health
conditions in particular, in the context of their confusion
about the application of the DDA definition. Developing case
law on mental impairment by reason of mental illness may
add to confusion, rather than dispel it.
Another legal issue on which respondents appeared to be
confused was that of the grounds on which they could justify
less favourable treatment of a disabled person. Most of them
relied on their legal representatives to make their case and
were not at all confident of the circumstances under which
less favourable treatment could be justified.
This lack of understanding about two major elements of the
DDA was identified in the Monitoring Report (Phase 1). But it
does not appear that the level of knowledge has substantially
improved or that the body of case law has yet done much to
reduce the confusion amongst potential applicants and
respondents. The complexities of the law were frequently
mentioned not just by the parties to a case but by the wider
experts who were interviewed. In some of our case studies it
appeared that, had the law been fully understood, the case
might not have been pursued. Legal issues arising in decided
cases are discussed in the case review.
1.2.2 The effectiveness of the conciliation process
As we examine in Section 4.1.1, three-quarters of DDA claims
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