Sothy v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs

The applicant, Ms Sothy, sought remedies under s 476 of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) in relation to a decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The Tribunal had affirmed a decision not to grant Ms Sothy a Partner (Residence) (Class BS) visa. This refusal was based on an independent expert's opinion that Ms Sothy was not a victim of relevant family violence.

The legal issues before the court were whether the Tribunal failed to consider Ms Sothy's claim of family violence, whether she made a new claim of relevant family violence that the Tribunal ought to have referred to the independent expert, and whether Ms Sothy was denied procedural fairness by the independent expert refusing a request by her legal representative to attend the expert's interview of Ms Sothy by telephone.

The court dismissed the application. It found that the Tribunal did not fail to consider the applicant's claims of family violence. The Tribunal accepted that the applicant made claims in terms of the asserted facts and gave evidence in support of them, and that some of this evidence was accepted. However, the court found that the Tribunal did not accept all or most of the evidence, nor did it assess the evidence on the basis of an incorrect understanding of "relevant family violence" or misapprehend its tasks. The court also found no denial of procedural fairness.

Consequently, the application was dismissed, and the applicant was ordered to pay the first respondent's costs.