Mental health review tribunals face the difficult task of balancing an obligation to be efficient and accessible against the obligation to provide procedural fairness. We conducted focus groups with lawyers and advocates who support people with matters before the Queensland Mental Health Review Tribunal to ascertain their views on issues relating to procedural fairness in this particular forum. Consistent with similar studies in other jurisdictions, our participants expressed concerns about how well informed their clients were about the proceedings, the probative value of the evidence relied upon and the extent to which medical evidence is effectively challenged. We analyse the concerns raised by our participants in light of the limited Australian case law on procedural fairness in mental health review tribunals.

心理健康审查法庭面临着一项艰巨的任务，即在高效和可及的义务与提供程序公平的义务之间取得平衡。我们与支持昆士兰精神健康审查法庭事务的律师和倡导者进行了焦点小组讨论，以确定他们对这个特定论坛中程序公平相关问题的看法。与其他司法管辖区的类似研究一致，我们的参与者对他们的客户对诉讼程序的了解程度、所依赖证据的证明价值以及医学证据受到有效质疑的程度表示担忧。鉴于澳大利亚关于精神健康审查法庭程序公平性的有限判例法，我们分析了参与者提出的担忧。