Enquiries on Likely Date of Publication

From time to time, appellants, their counsel, consultants, the NZIS/RSB or their counsel, approach the Secretariat, Chairperson or other Members, making enquiries as to the likely date of publication of Authority decisions.

For the purposes of clarification, the following Practice Note is issued and will be followed by the Authority.

1.    For reasons of confidentiality, only interested persons (including NZIS/RSB) or their counsel/consultant on the record, will be given a response to such requests.

2.    All requests will be in writing, addressed to the Registrar or Chairperson.  The request will set out the appellant's name, number of appeal and hearing date, plus Members involved, if possible.

3.    If the enquiry includes a request for urgency, reasons why the urgency is requested should be included.

4.    The enquiry will be immediately referred by the Registrar/Chairperson to the presiding Member who chaired the hearing or, if that Member is temporarily unavailable, to the Chairperson or a Deputy Chairperson of the Authority.

5.    No enquiries to other Members of the Authority or Secretariat will be responded to.

6.    The presiding Member, through the Registrar, will endeavour to respond to the enquiry within one day from the time of receipt of the request.  Responses will be in writing and will not be by telephone.

7.    The response to the enquiry will, in all cases, be sent to both parties (the RSB and the appellant) at the same time.

8.    The response will be a "best estimate only" by the presiding Member, and it is expected that only one such request will be made for each appeal.

9.    If the presiding Member, at a later time, discovers that the approximate date given could be delayed or advanced, the Member will endeavour to communicate that to the parties, as soon as reasonably possible.

10.    No indication whatsoever of the likely outcome of the appeal will be given.

11.    The confidential, personalised versions of each decision are published only to the appellant, their consultant/counsel, the RSB/Minister of Immigration and the UNHCR (on request).

12.    Legal research copies of depersonalised decisions are made available to the Nicholson Library, Auckland District Law Society Library, Auckland University Law School Library and the editor of the web-site, www.refugee.org.nz.  Relevant Minutes and Practice Notes are also published to the above libraries.

13.    No enquiries from the media, persons not on the record, or counsel or consultants not on the record as representing an appellant, will be responded to, beyond an acknowledgement stating that all appeals are confidential and the Authority cannot even  confirm that an appeal has been received.

The Authority would appreciate adherence to the above Practice Note and will, at all times, endeavour to give prompt and meaningful responses.