Advice about dismissal - please

Amber07

Well,I'm 99% sure they haven't joined one of those companies, we know the law firm they use is a big company and have heard 'rumours' that their charges are up to £300 an hour :eek:

And remember, they have had a solicitor on this case a LOT longer than we have. I think their bill could easily be well over 10k (especially when you count the 3 days tribunal already) I know ours is around the 7k mark so far. (They would have assumed we couldn't afford a solicitor, and they would be right - they were just unlucky we had insurance) :j

Of course, if we hadn't gotten a solicitor in the end I doubt we could have come this far. I can handle research, compiling info etc but I would get the shakes if I had to stand up and cross examine the scary people OH worked for!

Although our Solicitor has asked if I would like a job working for them, so I've done pretty well, thanks to all the advice on here :rotfl:

getmore4less

Amber07 wrote: »

And remember, they have had a solicitor on this case a LOT longer than we have. I think their bill could easily be well over 10k (especially when you count the 3 days tribunal already) I know ours is around the 7k mark so far. (They would have assumed we couldn't afford a solicitor, and they would be right - they were just unlucky we had insurance) :j

Many have legal cover for employment issues on their house insurance.

They do tend to look at a case on the likelyhood of winning, but once you tell your employer you are covered the sensible ones think twice about defending claims vigerously because of the costs.

Amber07

getmore4less wrote: »

Many have legal cover for employment issues on their house insurance.

They do tend to look at a case on the likelyhood of winning, but once you tell your employer you are covered the sensible ones think twice about defending claims vigerously because of the costs.

That's what we had, and it went through with no problems as we had a 'more than 50% chance of success' and we are covered up to 50k

Can't complain....total fluke as well, only took the policy out 2 months before and had never had legal cover in the past 10 years

Will make sure we ALWAYS get it now though - lesson learnt:D

suekjw

Hoping this is going / has gone well. x

joanne_d_3

Hi Amber.

I know the Tribunal was listed for May sometime......Any update?

Hope its going well.

joanne

Amber07

Hello - here to post a big update

The tribunal finished TODAY!! 6 days in total, and the 7th was't needed so the judges will use it for their deliberations.

What a long and complicated road it has been for the past 15 months.

We have finished on a hopeful note, our solicitor is quietly confident, but the professional she is she will only state that we are still 'over the 50% chance of success rate' lol:rotfl:I know how she feels though, it can always go either way, none of us can see what the judges are thinking, so we are still prepared for the worst.

Hubby went through hell yesterday - he was cross examined for 4 hours and we were so depressed by it all, their solicitor talked of him dreaming up the whole thing and coming up aith a conspiracy theory. I'm damn sure if I thought for a second he had dreamed it up we would never have come this far!! :eek:

He also spent a lot of time trying to rile OH, as our solicitor sad, if you lose your temper, you will give credence to the allegations against you. I was so proud of him, he kept it together and answered everything. He even started on about our financial situation, sad OH was only doing it for the money and started on 'how can you afford.....' we THINK he was going to refer to us being able to afford to bring this to tribunal but our solicitor was right in there objecting to his line of questioning and the judge agreed it had no relevance. OH looked him straight in the eye and informed him he didn't care if he didn't get a penny, he wanted everyone to know how this company treated their staff members and how people are wrongly fired left right and centre.:T

There was a bit of a twist to the proceedings. The respondent had closed their case, hubby had given his testimony and the judges decided they wanted to hear from other winesses who had been let go. Our solicitor didn't want to call them (they were no use to us) so the judge allowed the respondent to re-open their case and call them today. The respondent wanted to treat them as 'hostile witnesses' which I think meant he could ask more leading questions (?) but that was objected to straight away.
Fat lot of good it did them reopening, although they said their statements were correct and in their own words their stories conflicted and they didn't come across very well (in my humble opinion) the witness for us was up last, he told the tribunal that the allegations were false, he had never been bullied or witnessed any bullying, parts of his statement were completely fabricated (the worst parts!) and that he had only signed it because he thought he had no choice (ie he would lose his job) he done really well.

Mind you, their solicitor even tried to trip up OH on that score. Obviously he wasn't allowed to discuss the case with the witnesses appearing today but our solicitor spoke to the other side and said that the final witness was supposed to get a lift in with us as he had no transport and didnt know the area....their solicitor said 'oh that's fine we have no problem with that' then guess what...his first line of cross examination was : 'so, can you tell us how you got here today?' and started to imply that OH had been responsible for coaching the witness.....our solicitor was mad about this and informed all the judges EXACTLY what had gone on.....I was so annoyed at such an underhand tactic, and it just goes to show that he is no better than the people employing him.:mad:

Because we finished a day early the judges will se the last day to go through submissions and start their deliberations, so it should cut down a little on the number of weeks/months we have to wait for a decision. I never knew at the start of all this how long the final result could take.

I don't know how much to read into it, but apparently their solicitors parting comment was 'see you at the appeal' I don't know how much of this was joking but what I do know is that even if we do win they will drag this out to the bitter end.....but they will see us still there, still smiling and still damn well determined to fight his unfair treatment.

jobbingmusician

:T:T:T:T:T

I, too, am quietly confident.

But I also feel priveleged to have known you and OH through this thread - I am so impressed with your overall demeanour and presentation, which I feel must have come over to the tribunal in the same way. Whatever the outcome, I hope you are really proud of yourselves. :beer:

I look forward to hearing a happy outcome as soon as you hear about it.

Amber07

Oh I will be on here to post the result whatever way it goes!!:rotfl:

We honestly wouldn't have got through this whole thing without the invaluable information from people on this thread, not to mention the encouragement which has helped keep us going.

Big THANK YOU to everyone who has been supporting us xxxxx

987654

Well done to you both - dignity says a lot. Here's hoping for a great outcome.

suekjw

Amber, I really hope you get the outcome you both deserve out of this. They have been so underhand, and it says a lot about them that they have the cheek to have kept it going on this long.

Wishing you the best.