JUDGMENT

Gopal Sri Ram JCA:

[1] The respondent runs a tuition centre. The appellant put her three children in it. Like many parents she wanted her children's English and Mathematics to improve: for them to do well in their studies. But she found the services rendered by the respondent to be wanting. She was very disappointed. She wanted a refund of the fee she had paid the respondent. The respondent was not forthcoming. So she went to the Tribunal for Consumer Claims ("the Tribunal") and filed her claim there. The Tribunal found for her. It ordered the respondent to make a partial refund. That is because it concluded that the appellant had in fact received some benefit. The respondent then applied to the High Court for judicial review to quash the Tribunal's decision. It succeeded. The Tribunal's award was quashed. The appellant appealed to us.

[2] Formerly such a case such as this, where a consumer complains of defective products or services, would have had to have been filed in the Magistrate's Court. The disposal of the case would take ages. And there was no hope of recovering anything unless it was established that there was a total failure of consideration. This is because of