Employment Tribunal ... what are my chances ?

greendollar

UPDATE

Preliminary dates were set at the last tribunal for a 2 day hearing at the end of September , agreed by all parties on the day . These dates were confirmed on Fri by the Tribunal but my ex-employers now wants to postpone till October .
Do I agree to their request to keep the Tribunal onside or complain ? Amazing to think that I was dismissed Aug 2008 and its still not resolved and its now Aug 2010 .
They have had their latest request for an Order for Costs & Deposit Order refused .

greendollar

Hi everyone , well anyone still interested as its been a long time (not my fault).

Just an update on how underhand ex-employers and their solicitors can be in their attempts to get an Order of Costs to bully a claimant into dropping their claim .

If you didn't know it's normal for both sides to pay their own costs during any claim .
For an Order of Costs to be made you have to have acted vexatiously or disruptivily or that your claim is misconceived ( has absolutely zero chance of success ).

My ex-employers have had numerous requests for an Order of Costs refused by the judge during my claim presumably because we have always conducted my claim in a proper way and that my claim is far from misconceived .

When we recieved the bundle for the Tribunal from my ex-employers (on the Fri , Tribunal was on the Mon) we found that none of our documents (witness statements / an amended roster) that were important to our case were present . These documents have been in their possession for nearly 2 years and we requested that they be put in .

That left us no option but ask the judge that they be put in on the day .

The judge was extremely unhappy and abandoned the Tribunal as the bundle exceeded what had been ordered anyway , without adding the documents we needed put in .

My ex-employers solicitors then requested another Order for Costs stating that we had tried to ambush them at the Tribunal with new evidence ( bearing in mind that they've had the "new evidence" for nearly 2 yrs) .

To me this is blatant attempt to pull the wool over the judges eyes but we have correspondance from my ex-employers which shows just how long they've had these documents in their possession .
I believe they went to that Tribunal seekng to get it abandoned so they could then complain that we were being disruptive and then they could get their Order for Costs request granted .

joanne_d_3

Greendoller

You just have to remember that this is nothing more than "bullying tactics" on behalf of the Respondent . They hope that if they make things difficult enough for you then you will throw in the towel (so to speak).

As you will remember , i told you before that i was helping my husband through his Tribunal....well , the case has been heard and we are now just awaiting the decision....

I have to say , the Tribunal hearing was no where near as bad as i expected it to be. In our case the Respondent had also refused to add some documents to the "agreed" bundle so what i did was i took along six copies of the documents in dispute and explained them to the judge at the very start of the hearing . Our judge must have been a bit nicer than yours lol because when we introduced the documents he actually reprimanded the respondents and their solicitor for leaving such important documents out of the bundle !

Respondents and their legal reps will do all they can to hinder a case but just remember......every time the case is delayed because of their tactics it is costing THEM more in legal fee's lol

greendollar

Hi Joanne ,

We also took 6 copies of the documents that were missing to the tribunal but their bundle was over 60 pages in excess of what the Tribunal ordered anyway, the judge was absolutely livid , especially when he heard that they'd handed the bundle to my rep on the Fri. He then abandoned the Tribunal .

What really takes the biscuit are their accusations that we tried to "ambush" them by "secretly" trying to have these documents(which the are stating is new evidence) added when they've been in possession of the exact same documents for nearly 2 yrs and deliberately leaving them out of the bundle. They then say its our fault that the Tribunal was abandoned .


They then accuse us of being disruptive to try to obtain an Order of Costs/Deposit Order and a Wasted Costs Order from the judge .

If I was to blatantly lie to the Tribunal as they have I've no doubt my claim would be thrown out .

It goes to what lengths they will go to to get an Order for Costs as they know I'd have little option to drop my claim should it be granted .

joanne_d_3

Greendoller from what i have heard and read on the internet , the granting of a costs order is very rare UNLESS it is clear that the claimant is behaving badly.

Keep fighting ! I remember at one stage in my husbands case , infact it was very close to the end that i just felt that i couldnt go on with it all any more ..... i was representing my husband - and we had a spell of other things happening to our family and one morning i received a letter from the respondents solicitor and i cant just remember now what the letter was about but i told my husband "i just cant handle this stress anymore.....i have too much going on in my life to deal with this"

But....when i mention dropping the case during conversation with my dad he encouraged me that giving up at this late stage would be like saying we were "in the wrong" . Im so glad i took his advice and carried on.

SarEl

I am sure I have said this before, and if I haven't said it on this thread then it bears repeating... Don't get uptight about it. If the respondants and their legal team wnat to p!!s off the tribunal judges, then sit back and let them. I know it means another delay. But every time the judges get annoyed it is a nail in their coffin, not yours. If they want to fool around they will no doubt find that the tribunal (lietrally) has ways of making them pay.

JonathanGold

I have a similar scenario to the opening poster for Unfair dismissal which happened to me 3 weeks ago however I had emails confirming from my employers that the practice of bending the rules are ok in certain situations. Since I had made my intention clear to my employers that I will considering taking legal action they have deleted most of my emails from my inbox even though I was supposed to have been provided access to all emails. Can they do this? Is this legal?

DVardysShadow

JonathanGold wrote: »

I have a similar scenario to the opening poster for Unfair dismissal which happened to me 3 weeks ago however I had emails confirming from my employers that the practice of bending the rules are ok in certain situations. Since I had made my intention clear to my employers that I will considering taking legal action they have deleted most of my emails from my inbox even though I was supposed to have been provided access to all emails. Can they do this? Is this legal?

Jonathan, please start a new thread. It is not that we would want you to go away, but this thread is about someone else's problem. It just makes it unnecessarily difficult if you mix up your problem here.

joanne_d_3

Im by no means clued up on legal matters so what i am going to say is just MY opinion and thoughts.....

Do you still have access to the email account in question?

Its just a pity you hadnt considered printing them out for future reference when you first became aware of them !

greendollar

Morning , I'm well aware that (I am now anyway) that employers and there solicitors will attempt to bully claimants into submission .
What I don't understand is why they are allowed to get away with it .

The very first letter I recieved from my employer after they'd recieved my claim threatened costs, as has 99% of correspondance from them .

There can be no way at this early stage in the process can my actions be construed as vexatious/ disruptive or unreasonable .

I believe they have'nt tried the misconcieved angle as I have a solid claim , hence they never asked for a PHR .

But to try and label us disruptive they have abused the tribunal service by blatantly lying about evidence they've had for nearly 2yrs stating to the judge that its new evidence that we've tried to "sneak" in on the day. They have clearly tried to manufacture an excuse for an Order for Costs to be made , also forcing the judge to abandon the tribunal in the process.

This makes me more determined that I should go to Tribunal rather than settle out of court for some measly amount as I think there conduct should be brought to everyones attention .