NSW Ncat Member altering respondents Signed Affidavits and making no mention of it in decision. Is this legal?

[djthebigfella]

Hi my question is dose an NCAT member have a legal right and under what act or section to alter the written submitted evidence in the form of affidavits of the respondents that by doing so changed the whole meaning of the documents even though they were signed affidavits witnessed by there lawyer and already submitted as evidence. The member changed these affidavits and then made no mention of doing so in the final determination which i was surprised about as at the time we questioned it and he rebuffed us. Under sections 317 and 319 of the Crimes Act the first being tampering with evidence and the second being perverting the course of Justice are crimes this would have to be close to that and bias and prejudice in this matter i believe,

Another question if i may we were given leave to seek legal advice and used the legal advice we were provided with in a previous hearing and again we were rebuffed by the member the member then went on to state if they knew we had a legal background they will treat us and our evidence differently and they did just that. The member stated our evidence had no probity value and rejected most of it even making errors of fact in making a decision that no factual evidence supports but in fact all submitted and verbal evidence substantiates the opposite. I believe his finding of no probative value in our evidence is an error of law also as The expression ‘probative value’ is defined to mean: the extent to which the evidence could rationally affect the assessment of the probability of the existence of a fact in issue.

Had the member taken our evidence into account they certainly would have found the existence of a fact in issue and found our claims to be factually substantiated and proven even supported by the respondents evidence. Our evidence was all factual based emails and correspondence and they provided no factual based evidence in there defence.

I hope you can make sense of what i have written and if anyone can please advise me on the above matter i would be muchly appreciated thank you for your time.

Daniel

 

[Nighthelyn]

Hi djthebigfella/Daniel,

From reading what you wrote, I infer that this was an NCAT matter that was already completed with a final determination. You made a number of allegations (evidence tampering, error of fact, error of law, error in not accepting evidence that you say should have probative value). Practically speaking unless you have incontrovertible proof (not just some evidence but a lot of evidence) there is no value in bringing the matter back to an unsympathetic tribunal member.

If you wish to challenge this, you should urgently obtain a copy of the written reason of the determination and ASAP obtain legal advice (or NSW legal aid) on the timeframe and method of appeal. NCAT decisions can be appealed internally or externally but both require careful review of your case, prospect, and costs. There is pretty tight time limit too.

Depending on what type of NCAT case this is - there may be things other than NCAT you can consider. If it is money regarding a merchant or service related perhaps lodging a complaint to NSW fair trading to investigate if there is enough for them to open a query (they make take years to decide but it’s free). If it is relating to a tenancy issue, the Tenancy Union NSW looks pretty good maybe you should call them. If it is a medical type case, NSW trustee and Guardian may be someone you consider calling.

Good luck!

-Nighthelyn