Other Links

You are in: Manual > Guidelines for the Appeals Commission

The United Reformed Church Section O Process

Guidelines for the Appeals Commission
September 2004


This an advisory document made available by the Mission Council’s Section O Advisory Committee. It does not carry the authority of the General Assembly and, in every respect, it is subject to the authority of Part I and II of the Section O Process. It is intended to provide general guidance to members of the Appeals Commission.


1. Before the Hearing

1.1 Each Appeals Commission set up to hear appeals from decisions of the Assembly Commission under Section O consists of five persons, three of whom are chosen from the members of General Assembly. You have just agreed to be one of those persons during your period of service on General Assembly and you are anxious to learn more about the role you might be called upon to play. These guidelines are designed to help you.

1.2 The documents which are the tools you will need if you are called upon to serve as a member of the Appeals Commission are:

· *An up-to-date copy of Section O (check for changes after every General Assembly).
· *A copy of the Basis of Union
· *A copy of the Guidelines for the Assembly Commission, including a flow chart.
· A copy of the Referral Notice
· Copies of all the papers in the case (please refer to the checklist at Part II Paragraph G.8 of the Section O Process)
· *And of course a copy of these Guidelines.

All the documents marked * are available on the Church’s website www.urc.org.uk. Once on the website you will find yourself on Front Page. Click onto Our Work, then onto The Manual. For the Basis of Union click onto Section A; for all the other documents marked * click onto Section O.

It goes without saying that you must study all the papers in the case very carefully and that you must put out of your mind any information which may reach you from any outside source.

1.3 There are two important reasons why you must also study the Guidelines for the Assembly Commission. First although the two Commissions have quite distinctive roles, the general principles of confidentiality and natural justice which are explained in the Assembly Commission Guidelines apply equally to the conduct of Appeals hearings.

1.4 Secondly, if you are to fulfil your role properly you must have a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the procedures which apply at every aspect of the case which the Assembly Commission was called upon to judge, including the pre-hearing procedures, the conduct of the Hearing itself and the decision reached by the Assembly Commission.

1.5 It cannot be emphasised too strongly that everything which happens throughout the whole process is strictly confidential (see Paragraph A.4 of Part II). Section O Hearings are conducted in private (see Paragraph E.12.1 of Part II) and, while the case is continuing, you must under no circumstances make any public comment or discuss any aspect of the case with anyone other than your colleagues on the Appeals Commission or the General Secretary in his/her capacity as Secretary of the Appeals Commission. To do so would prejudice the chance of a fair hearing on the Appeal (see Paragraph A.4 of Part II). Even after the appeal has been concluded, unguarded comments can be damaging to people connected with the case and must at all costs be avoided.

1.6 Throughout the Section O Process many words and phrases are used which have special meanings in the context of Section O. These are all set out in Paragraph 3 of Part I and you must study that Paragraph and make sure that you understand those meanings. Several occur in these Guidelines and in the Guidelines for the Assembly Commission, in particular ‘Mandated Group’, ‘Initial Enquiry Stage’, ‘Commission Stage’, ‘Referral Notice’, ‘Parties’, ‘Assembly Commission’, ’Appeals Commission’.

1.7 The important distinction between the Assembly Commission procedures and those of the Appeals Commission is that, subject only to one exception (see Paragraphs 3.5 and 3.6 below), there is no re-hearing of the evidence before the Appeals Commission (see Part I Paragraph 13).

1.8 The General Secretary, who acts as the Secretary of the Appeals Commission, will have settled with you and with the Minister and the Mandated Group all the arrangements for the Hearing of the Appeal (date, time, venue etc.). S/he will also make sure that everyone involved has copies of all the relevant documents. Apart from these matters, there is likely to be very little pre-hearing procedure at the appeals stage of any case.

2 At the Hearing

2.1 The responsibility for the detailed practical arrangements for the hearing itself and for making sure that things get under way smoothly falls upon the Convener and the General Secretary. You will need to listen carefully to the information and instructions which are given so that you fully understand the nature of the proceedings in which you have an important part to play.

2.2 The hearing of the Appeal proceeds in a set order. First of all the Convener will explain his/her role and s/he will then introduce you as the other members of the Appeals Commission and explain the role that you will collectively fulfil in hearing the appeal and making the decision. S/he will then explain the functions of the General Secretary and the Church’s legal adviser, who will also be present.

2.3 Following these introductions the order of procedure will depend upon whether the Appeal has been lodged by the Minister or the Mandated Group. The Convener will invite the Minister or his/her accompanying person (if the Minister has lodged the appeal) or the spokesperson for the Mandated Group (if the Mandated Group has lodged the appeal) to address the Appeals Commission and present the case for the appeal to be allowed. When that presentation has been completed, the Convener will then invite the spokesperson for the Mandated Group or the Minister or his/her accompanying person as the case may be to present the case for the appeal to be rejected.

2.4 During either of these presentations it is open to any of you to interject with any comments or questions. In all probability the Convener will ask you to channel your questions etc through him/her so as to avoid too many interruptions from different people to the detriment of the smooth running of the proceedings.

2.5 When both parties have made their representations to the Appeals Commission, the Hearing is concluded and everyone else retires, including the General Secretary and the legal adviser, leaving the five of you who constitute the Appeals Commission in the room alone. You then have the task of considering and arriving at your decision (which may be unanimous or by a majority vote).

3 Decisions Open to the Appeals Commission

3.1 Please refer to Part I Paragraph 14 which sets out for you all the decisions open to an Appeals Commission. You should check through this list and apply it to the appeal which you are hearing to see which ones might be appropriate to it. You should carefully study Section 5 of the Guidelines for the Assembly Commission which analyses in some detail the way in which the Assembly Commission should approach the task of assessing the evidence and reaching its decision.

3.2 Although you will not have had the benefit of actually seeing and listening to the witnesses, you will have all the relevant papers and you should study both these and the record of the Assembly Commission’s decision. As an Appeals Commission your task is to compare the statements and documents and the notes of the evidence with the Record of the Hearing and the Notice of the Decision. You may not necessarily agree with the conclusions reached by the Assembly Commission on the evidence. This in itself is not sufficient reason for interfering with their finding and indeed you should not lightly set aside the decision of the Assembly Commission. Remember - you have not had the benefit of hearing the evidence yourselves.

3.3 As a general rule, it would not normally be appropriate for you to challenge the body of evidence as set down in the Record of the Hearing before the Assembly Commission. On the basis of that evidence you may regard the decision reached by the Assembly Commission as surprising or even, possibly, flawed. You may consider, for example, that on the evidence as recorded, the conclusion that a breach of discipline had occurred was too harsh and did not merit the Minister’s removal from the roll or even the issue of a written warning. Conversely you may feel that the Assembly Commission was too lenient towards the Minister and that its decision should have been more severe.

3.4 The range of decisions open to you as the Appeals Commission under Part I, Paragraph 14 allows you to reverse the Assembly Commission’s decision either way. However, if you are contemplating this, you must bear in mind that, unlike the decision of the Assembly Commission, there is no appeal against your decision. In particular, if you are thinking about reversing an Assembly Commission decision that the Minister’s name should remain on the Roll and replacing it with a decision to delete his/her name, you should consider very carefully before doing so because your decision would be the first and only ruling to that effect and one against which the Minister would have no right of appeal.

3.5 You may even reach the conclusion that the Assembly Commission has made a serious mistake either in misunderstanding or overlooking some aspect of the procedures or in drawing what appear to you to be wrong conclusions from the evidence. Sometimes new evidence may come to light after the Assembly Commission Hearing which, in your view, might have had a bearing on the case. If the case falls into any of these categories, you have the option of referring it back to be heard by another duly constituted Assembly Commission.

3.6 If your decision is to refer the case back, then the newly constituted Assembly Commission will have the opportunity to rehear all the evidence, including any new evidence which may have come to light since the first Hearing. Although the ‘reference back’ procedure is bound to involve additional time and expense and to drag out the whole business for everyone, it is better to take this course than to perpetrate a miscarriage of justice because the procedures before the first Assembly Commission have been flawed and never put right.

3.7. It is of the utmost importance that you should fully understand all the procedures which govern the conduct of the Appeal so at any time during the hearing of the Appeal you are free to seek clarification, guidance or advice on any aspect of the case from the General Secretary and/or the Legal Adviser. This applies even after the parties have left and you are deliberating alone. The General Secretary and the legal adviser will not be in the room with you at this point, but they will remain in the building so as to be available for consultation on any aspect of procedure. So, at any time during your private discussion, you can (and indeed are encouraged to) call either or both of them in to ask for clarification and guidance on any particular point.

3.8 You are particularly referred to Section 5 of the Guidelines for the Assembly Commission which explains how the members of that Commission should conduct their deliberations in order to reach their decision. Although as has been pointed out there are some important differences between your role and that of the members of the Assembly Commission, you must have a thorough understanding of how they have (or should have) gone about reaching their decision so that you can be satisfied as to whether they have followed all the correct procedures. That section of the Assembly Commission Guidelines contains valuable information which will help you as you begin your own deliberations and consider your own decision in the Appeals Hearing.

3.9 In particular please pay careful attention to Paragraphs 5.12 and 5.13 of the Assembly Commission Guidelines which explain how the decision should be recorded and the procedures when you deliberate in private at the end of the hearing. These two paragraphs apply equally to you as the Appeals Commission and are fundamental to the way in which you should reach and record your decision.

3.10 The Legal Adviser will always be present at the Hearing in appeals cases. Reference has been made earlier to his/her role in assisting and advising you throughout the proceedings. Without wishing to detract in any way from his/her importance at every stage, there are two areas where you should seek his/her advice as a matter of course.

3.11 The first relates to your power to refer a case back to be re-heard by a different Assembly Commission (see Paragraph 3.5 above). If you are considering this, the legal adviser will be able to clarify for you the special rules which apply.

3.12 The second instance relates to the making and recording of your decision. As has been stressed at Paragraph 3.7, the decision is yours alone and the legal adviser plays no part in it. However, once you have reached your decision, it is strongly recommended that you call in the legal adviser (a) to confirm that in every respect the decision itself and any recommendations or guidance which you intend to add to it comply fully with Section O and (b) to assist you in wording the record of the decision to ensure that that too fully complies with Section O.

3.13 As has already been stated, the General Secretary and the legal adviser remain on hand throughout the Hearing to assist you. However - and this cannot be stressed too strongly – neither of them has any part to play in the reaching of the actual decision. This responsibility is yours – and yours alone!

3.14 The making and recording of your decision as previously explained conclude your involvement.


--------------------------------------------

top