An appellant is a party (usually the primary applicant) who disagrees with a decision made by the organization and submits an appeal. For example, a person may submit an appeal to a decision where he or she is determined ineligible for an unemployment benefit.
All appeal cases have at least one appellant. In certain circumstances, an appeal case can have multiple appellants. For example, if multiple claimants are dissatisfied with a decision made by the organization in relation to their application, product delivery or issue case, the organization may decide to consider all of the these at the one hearing. To cater for this situation, the organization can add each claimant to an appeal as an appellant. Each appellant added will have their program application denial, product delivery or issue case decision considered at the hearing held for the appeal. For more information, see Appeals Against Multiple Decisions below.
A respondent is a party who responds to an appeal made by an appellant. This is the party who defends the decision that gave rise to the appeal.
The organization always fills one of these roles, i.e., the organization is always the appellant or the respondent. Where the organization is the respondent, the appellant is usually the primary client or nominee on the original application or case.
Conversely, if the respondent is a case participant, the appellant must be the organization.
Cúram Appeals also allows for the addition of appellants who are not directly associated with an existing application, product delivery or issue case to an appeal case. This allows additional participants with an interest in the appeal to be included in the hearing held for the appeal case.