David,
I see from some of your earlier responses that you do not get involved with cases once they have gone past the SST Appeal Tribunal stage. Would you know of any legal resources that might be available or lawyers that might take a case on after that stage? My partner has a list of proven conditions (AS, Fibromyalgia, Arthritis, Sacroiliitis, uncontrolled Diabetes, Neuropathy, you name it) but recently received a letter denying his request for leave to appeal his unsuccessful SST tribunal appeal decision. My partner has had a long fight with the SST because the doctor who treated him during his period of eligibility has since been suspended (unrelated matter) and no one knows where he is now – meaning he can’t provide details about my partner’s conditions and discussions they had about treatment at the time. His rheumatologist confirmed the conditions but favoured a course of treatment that my partner didn’t agree with because of its risks. This seems to be one of the main reasons for their denial. Also one of the assertions made by the tribunal and given as a reason for his rejection turned out not to be factually correct based on the info they already had, something we pointed out in our request for leave to appeal – but apparently facts don’t have to be correct in order to be considered valid reasons for a rejection. Seriously. They admitted that it wasn’t correct but said nevertheless it was still going to stand. If there is any advice you could give it would be greatly appreciated.
I am sorry to hear of your situation. If you are denied leave to appeal to the Social Security Tribunal (Appeal Division), then for all practical purposes that is the end of the road. Technically, you can appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal, but in reality you would have a 1% or less chance they would ever overturn the decision to deny your leave to appeal to the STT (Appeal Division).