PI Brief Update

Hutton and others v CICA: Review of the UT’s judicial review jurisdiction and out of time applications in criminal injury compensation claims - Owain Thomas QC, One Crown Office Row

22/02/17. Hutton and others v Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority [2016] EWCA Civ 1305. A claim for criminal injuries compensation was brought almost 40 years out of time. CICA refused to waive the time limit, and the claimants appealed. Following a complex procedural history, the matter came before the Court of Appeal, which upheld the First-Tier Tribunal’s decision in CICA’s favour. The judgment of Gross LJ reviewed the Upper Tribunal’s judicial review function in such cases, and considered the issues engaged by historical CICA claims.

Background

Underlying the claims was the fatal stabbing of Abraham Roy Hutton in 1966. His killer was convicted of manslaughter. In 2008, the children of the deceased and their mother applied for compensation through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2001, which provides that applications must be received within two years of the incident. CICA may waive this requirement where ‘by reason of the particular circumstances of the case, it is reasonable and in the interests of justice to do so’.

CICA refused to waive the time limit and rejected the claims; the delay meant that it could not confirm the facts surrounding the killing. That decision was appealed, unsuccessfully to the FTT. The UT refused permission to appeal but the case eventually ending up before the Court of Appeal (Hutton v First-Tier Tribunal [2012] EWCA Civ 806), which found that along the way, the FTT had applied the wrong test by requiring that there be “particular” in the sense of “special” circumstances. The issue was remitted to the FTT for fresh consideration...

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