Lacking Insight - Community Law

Part 4 > The Views of the Stakeholdershimself. . . . and I’ve got to say I was struck byit because I’ve never seen someone - the Boarddoesn’t usually or very rarely make any sort ofpositive statements to clients.Legal RepresentativeIn this quote we hear how the client left with his headhigh, the Board acknowledged him as a personand his efforts to manage his life as significant; theyencouraged him – this may have left the client with apositive feeling despite the outcome.The formality and rituals of hearings allow foraffirming of a person in a setting that is significant – ifhandled with care and respect they can contribute toa therapeutic outcome.Statement of Reasons“... not malodorous”It is difficult to understand the purpose of suchan opinion or observation found in the ‘evidence’section of a Statement of Reasons. The language ofthe statements is often laden with subjective viewsproffered by clinicians and accepted and regurgitatedby the Board under the guise of medico/legal jargon,or, as in the case of ‘not malodorous’, in highlyprejudicial language. Legal advocates, though thekeenest readers of these monologues, are perplexed:Statements of Reasons I don’t really thinkhelp you much.to quote evidence that goes againsttheir reasons.Well it’s the main thing sometimes when you’veappeared and you’ve put all this argument andthen you see two lines attributed to you and thenyou’re looking at the reasons thinking hang on!They thought I was the tea lady, what’s going on ...Legal Representative (Discussion Group)As stated earlier, a Statement of Reasons is adocument that sets out the tribunal or court decisionin a particular matter. Reasons include the evidencethat has been relied upon by the tribunal, and therationale for accepting some evidence and rejectingother evidence.Statements of Reasons are rarely automaticallyproduced by the Board; they are written eitherbecause a consumer, or the consumer’s advocate,makes a request to have the reasons for thedecision in writing, though occasionally, where thereis a dissenting decision, the Board will prepare astatement at its own initiative. The Board offerscomparatively little training on the subject of writing aStatement of Reasons. Generally, if the statement iswritten, it is done so by the legal member.Discussions with stakeholders reveal two clear viewsabout the status of Statements of Reasons: the firststates that the system for producing statements andthe rate at which it is done is adequate for the needsof the jurisdiction; the second suggests that morerigour could be applied to their creation.I reckon they’re generally unsatisfactory intheir formulas, do you?Yes.And they’re self-serving.Yes, you’re not ever going to - they’re not going83