Confirmation Bias

This is how planning appeal seems to work: Council hire an independent planner to take a position (pass or fail a building), then evidence is looked at to confirm this position, ignoring other evidence.

This is called the confirmation bias and you can see it in the reports done by Planners where some evidence is ignored, and other points are cited which make their case.

This is a variation of the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy, where bullets are fired at a barn door, then bull eyes are drawn, the shooter now claiming to be a sharpshooter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_sharpshooter_fallacy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

By it's nature, this is a biased approach, I can't think of any other industry grounded in more fallacies.