Do you think you have seen and heard it all?
Well, sometimes when you read through the decisions of the Federal Courts, you can find something that is amazingly, astonishingly, insanely bad.
Are you ready for this one?
In a recent case that was before Judge Vasta of the Federal Circuit Court, Plaintiff P25 of 2017 v Minister for Immigration and Plaintiff P26 of 2017 v Minister for Immigration (2020) FCCA 728 (11 March 2020), the Court found that two officers of the Department had refused two offshore Protection visa applications using "exactly the same words" as "justification" for the refusal decisions. One decision was made the day after the first one.
The Court found that these circumstances gave rise to jurisdictional error, requiring that the decisions to refuse the visa applications be "quashed" and thus returned to the Depatrment for reconsideration.
It was Judge Vasta's view trhat where one officer uses exactly the same words to describe the reasons for refusal as had been used in a prior refusal decision by another officer, it raises doubt as to whether the second officer has engaged in the required independent intellectual assessment of the application.
So, it really appears that what happened here was that the Department seemingly was using a "cookie cutter" or "standard template" approach to writing reasons for refusal, but that this practice was uncovered and brought to the attention of the courts, which granted relief to the applicants with little hesitation.
It just goes to show that those representing applicants need to be alert that where a refusal decision seems to be mechanistic and formulaic, and appears to be the product of "cutting and pasting" by the Department, serious inquiry needs to be done to confirm whether this is actually the case.
And if it can be proven that the Department has, in a pro forma way, simply reproduced, word for word, a prior refusal decision, then serious, serious consideration needs to be given to challenging such a decision in the courts.
It is truly hard to believe that such things are happening.
But maybe not hard to believe?
Has anyone else out there seen anything like this??
If you find posts like this useful, consider checking out The Migration Messenger, found at this link!