Ganafa, R (on the application of) v Immigration Appeal Tribunal

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: Mr Serugo-Lugo, I have come to the conclusion on the evidence of this case and its total history that your solicitors are not competent to deal with it. I propose that that observation be transcribed and sent to the Legal Services Commission. I can say no more than that. The consequences that flow from that are not for me. Do you have any observations?

MR SERUGO-LUGO: None at all.

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: I can see no sensible reason why the costs thrown away at today's hearing should not be borne by your solicitors. They would be entitled, if they wish, to have a full hearing relating to that. However, it may be in the circumstances that the added costs of a full hearing in the face of the present position is not something that they would desire. Would you like to take instructions? I would like some indication of the cost please, Mr Waite. (Pause).

MR SERUGO-LUGO: Your honour, they accept that they will pay the defendant's costs for today.

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: A figure please, Mr Waite.

MR WAITE: I think £750, my Lord.

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: That does not seem to me an exorbitant figure in all the circumstances, I am bound to say Mr Serugo-Lugo. You are content I make the order that your solicitor pay £750 to the Secretary of State in relation to the costs wasted today?

MR SERUGO-LUGO: I am much obliged.

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: You are content with that, Mr Serugo-Lugo, on instructions?

MR SERUGO-LUGO: Yes.

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: Of course, as you will appreciate Mr Serugo-Lugo, if it should be the case that the Legal Services Commission thinks that another firm of solicitors ought to handle this case, it may have other implications. As I say, that is not a matter for me, it would be a matter for those other solicitors if that were to be the case. Mr Waite, I will put 14 days as the first day because I am conscious that there might be a slight delay involved. Obviously, the transcribing of my observations will not take long but there may be a knock-on effect of that. It may, in the long run, be time well saved.

MR WAITE: Yes, absolutely. Those comments are to be transcribed and sent by the court, presumably.

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: Absolutely. Now, Mr Serugo-Lugo, there is something else. I am ordering that the Secretary of State, on his agreement, prepares the bundle in this case. There will be filed within seven days, by you, a statement of issues in this case. I do not mean by that every conceivable point that may cross your mind, but the live issues in the case, which it seems to me revolve around Victoria and article 8. There will also within seven days be served a proper skeleton argument setting out the legal submissions which you are making in the light of the issues which you have defined. Do you understand that?

MR SERUGO-LUGO: Yes.

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: And the Secretary of State is to respond. Mr Waite, I have indicated seven days; if I say seven days thereafter. You are, among other things, going to have to apply your mind as to the question of certification if you are suggesting that that is a live issue. You understand that, do you not?

MR SERUGO-LUGO: I do, yes.

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: And you have a copy, do you, of the Court of Appeal decision in Balamurali and Sandhu?

MR SERUGO-LUGO: I do.

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: I will make one final order. There ought, please, to be prepared, although it is not as urgent as the transcript relating to my views to the competence of the claimant's solicitors, but there should also be prepared a transcript of the order that I have just made regarding the preparation of the issues and the skeleton argument, so there can be absolutely no doubt, in due course, about what I have said. Is there anything else Mr Serugo-Lugo that occurs to you?

MR SERUGO-LUGO: Not at all.

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: Thank you. Mr Waite?

MR WAITE: My Lord, just that the costs of preparing the bundle should also be paid by the claimant's solicitors.

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: What is the likely cost of preparing the bundle?

MR WAITE: In a case like this, my Lord, it is actually going to be quite a lot of work. I think it will probably be a whole days's work to get a really good bundle into place, so I would think about another £750.

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: Well, I do not want added costs for subsequent consideration of that. I am just slightly concerned to do it, as it were. I will obviously ask Mr Serugo-Lugo, who must speak to his solicitor. I would be inclined to indicate that my reaction is a sum limited to £500. Mr Serugo-Lugo, would you take instructions as regards that.

MR SERUGO-LUGO: My Lord, the problem is that -- of course the court decided that the bundles should be prepared by the respondent's solicitors but it was not the case that those instructing me actually cannot produce the bundle, although they have not produced them today. In that case, it may well be that since it was the court's decision.

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: All right, Mr Serugo-Lugo, I will order that the question of the costs for the preparation of the bundle be considered at the conclusion of the hearing.

MR SERUGO-LUGO: I am much obliged.

MR WAITE: My Lord, my only concern about that is if the claimant's solicitors are no longer acting at that stage, presumably I think the court would still have jurisdiction. There would then have to be a show cause order.

MR JUSTICE GOLDRING: There would have to be a show cause order and I am anxious, as you will appreciate, to avoid the added costs of all of that. That is why I indicated a maximum figure of £500, because I can easily see that the costs involved in a show cause hearing would exceed that and the whole thing would become rather counter-productive. However, it seems to me that that is what I am going to have to do. I am going to order a transcript of the whole of this hearing. Thank you very much. This case is therefore adjourned.