Service Statement for the National Insurance Court

The organisation of The National Insurance Court and its main tasks

The court itself

The National Insurance Court’s responsibility is to consider appeals against decisions made on private
individuals’ entitlement to pensions and other national insurance benefits.

In other words, their rights and obligations under the Acts governing national insurance, child benefit, war pensions, and government and municipal pension funds. In reality, the National Insurance Court acts as a specialist court even though it is not part of the judicial system.

In practice, the National Insurance Court is the final instance for considering claims in respect of pensions or other national insurance benefits. Its purpose is to help provide a particularly high degree
of legal protection in these cases. Any decisions of the Court may be reviewed by the Court of Appeals
(lagmannsretten).

The National Insurance Court deals with appeals from across the country. It is situated in Oslo. The
Court is divided into four specialist departments each handling all kinds of cases, and an
administrative department.

 

The leader of the Court, his deputy and 17 permanent members of the Court are lawyers and nine permanent members of the court have professional medical expertise or skills in rehabilitation. In addition, there are about 12 deputy members of the Court.

 

The National Insurance Court has approx. 60 person-years at its disposal. A Court normally comprises two or three judges (Court members/Court deputy members) depending on the nature of the case.

The Aim Of The National Insurance Court

 

The court will

• consider and decide cases in accordance with the Act governing appeals to the National Insurance Court
  

• take proper decisions where rulings will be in accordance with current legislation and regulations
  

• decide cases within a reasonable time

• make court orders that establish guidelines for the National Labour and Welfare Organisation, pension funds and for other legal applications within the fields of national insurance and pension law
  

• consider and decide cases in such a way as to promote confidence
  

Types of cases

The National Insurance Court deals with appeals against decisions taken by the National Labour and Welfare Organisation and public service pension funds.

The main fields of casework are as follows

• Disability pensions
• Occupational injuries
• Basic benefit and attendance benefit
• Benefits during medical rehabilitation
• Daily cash allowance during unemployment
• Benefits during occupation-oriented rehabilitation
• Daily cash sickness allowance
• Administrative decisions
• War pensions
• Ancillary aid benefit, e.g. for car
• Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• Pensions from municipal and county municipal pension funds

More than half the cases involve disability pensions from the national insurance scheme.

Case procedure and consideration

Case procedure

The rules for the consideration of cases by the National Insurance Court are set out in
Act No. 9 of 16 December 1966 governing appeals to the National Insurance Court.

A rejection of national insurance benefit claims may be appealed to the National Insurance Court after
the case has been finally decided by the service that made the decision. In other words, any right of
appeal to the superior instance must have been exercised first.

The time limit for appeals to the Court is six weeks from the date you have received notice of the
decision.

The appeal must be submitted either in writing or verbally to your national insurance office, Aetat or
pension fund. If you submit a verbal appeal, the office concerned must assist you in drawing up a
written appeal.

Before the appeal is submitted to the National Insurance Court, the agency taking the decision
against which the appeal is being lodged, will prepare the case for consideration. A fresh
examination of the case will be conducted and you will get a copy of the new submission and have the
opportunity to state your case.

It is only when the case has been received by the National Insurance Court that the consideration
procedure starts at our end. You will receive a written notice from us to say the case has been
received.

 

Case consideration at The National Insurance Court

Case considerations are mainly in writing and all the documents in the case will follow throughout
proceedings. The Court will ensure that proper light is shed on all aspects of the case.

The reasons for the Court’s decision will be announced and the decision taken by simple
majority. If the Court unanimously decides that the appeal cannot be upheld and the resulting order
cannot be regarded as having a bearing on matters outside this present case, the Court may make a
court order with simplified reasoning.

The outcome of considerations by the National Insurance Court use to be that approx. 14–16% of
decisions were amended in favour of the appellant. No fees are involved in considerations by the Court.

 

Response time

The National Insurance Court makes about 4 000–4 500 rulings per year.

The response time varies somewhat between the different types of case. On average, the response
time for a decision is around four months.

You can expect that of all appeals around 80% will be dealt with finally within six months. Individual
cases may require somewhat longer, especially if further information has to be collected. You will be
given more details if the consideration time will be substantially more than six months. No cases will
take longer than 12 months provided that the National Insurance Court is able to control progress.

 

Free legal aid

You are entitled to assistance by a counsel/lawyer. The Court may grant you free legal aid for legal
representation if the Court finds that legal advice is necessary or reasonable in your case. The financial
aid is means tested.

A lawyer will be able to advise you in more detail about the conditions.

 

Legal costs of the case

The Court can decide that the other party must pay any necessary expenses you incur in connection
with the appeal. Usually this will apply to the cost of legal aid. A condition is that the Court has amended the decision to your advantage.

Addresses and office hours

The National Insurance Court has offices in central Oslo at Grønlandsleiret 27.

Our postal address is:

Trygderetten
PO Box 8022 Dep.
NO-0030 Oslo

 

 

Office hours:

08.00 to 15.45 (15 September to 14 May)
08.00 to 15.00 (15 May to 14 September)