Local Appeal Tribunals

Records of, and relating to, the Local Appeal Tribunal and the Commissioner. This series contains files of individual cases, arranged alphabetically and chronologically, that went before the tribunal between 1948 and 1985. The files include correspondence, decisions by the tribunal, medical histories, and reports submitted to the tribunal by GPs, surgeons, psychiatrists and other medical specialists.

The Local Appeal Tribunal was created by the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act 1946, which commenced in July 1948. Under the act, any claim for industrial injury benefit, or any question relating to a claim or an award, was submitted to an Insurance Officer employed by the Ministry of National Insurance in one of its local offices, such as Alfreton, Chesterfield and Ilkeston. Claimants dissatisfied with the decision of the Insurance Officer could appeal and the case would be referred to a Local Appeal Tribunal; the Insurance Officer could also refer claims to the tribunal. In certain instances, usually a dispute over a matter of law, a case would be referred to the Commissioner. A Local Appeal Tribunal consisted of one or more members representing employers, representatives of the claimants and a chairman, who was usually a lawyer. Panel members were disqualified from hearing a case if they were representing the claimant or were involved in any way in the case. The Commissioner and deputy Commissioners were barristers or advocates who had at least ten years of experience in their profession.

Although the Local Appeal Tribunal heard cases relating to the award of industrial injury benefit and did not, unlike the Medical Appeal Tribunal, make decisions about the extent of an individual's medical disablement, medical questions frequently arose. In those cases a doctor was invited to sit in with the tribunal as an assessor but would not take part in its final decision.

Changes in the machinery of government meant that between 1948 and 1988 the tribunal process was overseen by the Ministry of National Insurance, Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance, Ministry of Social Security and the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS).