We will all be familiar with clients who at the last moment are too sick to attend a hearing either at Court ar at the AAT.

The appropriate course is to ask the client to provide a medical certificate seeking to be excused.

However, we must make sure that the relevant certificate is in proper form and says that the client is too unwell to attend or to give evidence in the proceedings.

The following case is a useful commentary on those requirements :

 

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA 

Singh v Minister for Home Affairs [2019] FCA 723

 

15    In reviewing the Tribunal’s decision, the primary Judge set forth the decision-making process which had led to the Tribunal decision and its reasons for decision. Of particular concern was the reliance placed by the Tribunal upon the medical certificate which had been provided and which stated that Mr Singh had been “examined and received Medical Treatment at our clinic … [and] will be unfit to continue his usual occupation/study”. The primary Judge then concluded (in part) as follows:

[19]    The approach of the Tribunal to the Medical Certificate was entirely consistent with decisions of numerous Judges in the Federal Court of Australia. In MZAHI v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2016] FCA 129 at [7] Davies J said as follows:

[7]    No error has been demonstrated in the conclusion of the Federal Circuit Court that the Tribunal did not deny the appellant procedural fairness. The medical certificate which the appellant furnished to the Tribunal was in the following form:

In my opinion, he/she will be unfit for his/her normal work from 27/5/14 to 28/5/14 inclusive. (medical condition)

The medical certificate was plainly inadequate to justify any further adjournment of the Tribunal hearing. The medical certificate merely stated that the appellant was unfit for work and provided no meaningful detail about the nature of the appellant’s illness, or any meaningful content which would enable the Tribunal to conclude that the appellant could not participate at the Tribunal hearing. Given the absence of any meaningful content in the medical certificate it was open to the Tribunal to reject that certificate as sufficient proof that the appellant was unable to participate in a Tribunal hearing on that day…