Employment Tribunal ... what are my chances ?

zzzLazyDaisy

Well done!

Do bear in mind that if you are successful and the tribunal orders compensation, then the DWP will reclaim benefits from that which must be paid by the respondent before they pay the compensation to you. I am out of touch with exactly which benefits are affected - so you or your TU rep needs to find out.

When preparing your schedule of loss, it is worth doing a subtotal, and then listing all benefits to be deducted from compensation as a separate heading, as otherwise there is a risk that they will be counted as earning and taken into account when calculating your compensation - and then deducted from you actual compensation, which means you will effectively lose out twice. It is for this reason that benefits are not normally included in a statement of loss as earnings, because they have to be paid back.

On the other hand - if you settle out of court, benefits do not have to be paid back so there is room for negotiation there, and this can often encourage the parties to settle. Perhaps this is what the tribunbal has in mind.

joanne_d_3

Hi Greendollar.

Glad today went "ok(ish) for you .

How many case management discussions have you had now ?

Keep fighting Greendollar

SarEl

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Well done!

Do bear in mind that if you are successful and the tribunal orders compensation, then the DWP will reclaim benefits from that which must be paid by the respondent before they pay the compensation to you. I am out of touch with exactly which benefits are affected - so you or your TU rep needs to find out.


.

Recoupment only applies to those payments made by the Benefits Agency - JSA, Income Support and certain (but not all) sickness benefits. It does not include Council tax or Housing benefit.

zzzLazyDaisy

SarEl wrote: »

Recoupment only applies to those payments made by the Benefits Agency - JSA, Income Support and certain (but not all) sickness benefits. It does not include Council tax or Housing benefit.

Thanks for that!

greendollar

Hi everyone ,

Yeah pretty good day , this was our 1st CM , only ordered after my ex-employer failed to comply with the judges orders .

One thing I forgot is that the judge agreed that we could use all the correspondance where they have used threats of costs in support for our own application for costs against my ex-employer . And the date for the next ( 2 day Tribunal ) has been set for the last week in Sept .
Do Child Tax Credits come under benefits SarEl ?

Thanks for all your support , it really does help to know that other people are willing to fight with me against these *******

greendollar

Hi , well its not often that I'm lost for words but I was amazed to hear from my rep who said he'd just received an e-mail from my ex-employers stating that they were ............ wait for it ............ going for costs again ..... because we have failed to produce certain documentation in a timely manner and its all our fault this has dragged on so long .
The fact that they were the ones responsible for the postponements and the last tribunal was halted on the day because they failed to comply with the judges order seems to have escaped them completely . !!!!!!
My rep seems to think they are clutching at straws but I think they are that arrogant they believe that they're gonna take me for £15,000 +.

UPDATE
They have now threatened my rep that they will be asking for an order of costs be made against him aswell as me .

joanne_d_3

Hi Greendollar.

I would say that this threat of costs is all part of their plan to try to scare you into backing out of this !

I am no expert but i think i read somewhere that costs are not awarded unless the party has behaved deliberately obstructively ?

Even if costs WERE awarded against you , i would doubt it would be as high as 15k lol , take it for the "scare tactic" it is and keep fighting !

greendollar

Hi all ,
Well , astounded is all I can say , 2 weeks after being denied an Order for Costs and request for a deposit put down they have written to the Tribunal wanting a Wasted Order for Costs and again request I put a deposit down .
They failed to comply with the judges order at the last E/T , the bundle being to big and leaving out all our witness statements/documents (which they been in possession of for over a 1yr) giving us no option but request that they be put in on the day of the tribunal (they only handed the bundle to my rep the Fri before the Tribunal on the Mon ).
They accuse us of attempting to ambush them at the Tribunal by having these NEW ? statements included by STEALTH ?!!!!!!? and it was our fault the Tribunal was abandoned .
They are accusing us of being disruptive and manipulating the process .
Pretty much everything they are saying can be proved false but they have really gone to town at my rep who they think should be held responsible for their extra costs and being at fault for the litigation going for 2 yrs .
They're behaving like children , do they think if the ask for costs enough times that the judge will cave in and grant them ?

zzzLazyDaisy

I'd be inclined to get your rep drop the tribunal a line simply saying something like:

I refer to the Respondent's letter to the Employment Tribunal dated [date].

I respectfully draw the Tribunal's attention to the Respondent's earlier requests for costs/deposit orders which have been considered by the Tribunal and denied. The Tribunal will also note from its own records that the full hearing of my complaint, originally fixed for [date] was postponed on the day of the hearing owing to the Respondent's own conduct in failing to comply with the Directions of the Tribunal.

With regard to the remainder of the letter - I do not propose to deal individually with the matters raised, save to say that all allegations are denied and full evidence will be adduced at the appropriate time.

In the circumstances I respectfully invite the Tribunal to refuse the Respondent's application for a deposit and/or costs against the Claimant and/or his Representative.

Yours etc

vic77en

Hi, sorry to hijack your thread but I'm after some advice and you seem to be pretty clued up.

I wanted to return to work on a jobshare basis after maternity leave, but my request was refused, even though the same role in a different office is done as a job share. At the meeting to discuss this, I was told my role had been given more responsibilities and wouldn't be allowed help from temporary staff even though I had been previously. I resigned as I didn't think I could return full-time with a bigger role than before and no help, with a small child.
I was advised by an employment law solicitor that I may have a case for sex discrimination under flexible working regs and possibly constructive dismissal, though this was weakened as I wrote them a bland resignation letter.
ET1 form would have to be submitted today, but couldn't get this sorted on my insurance policy and solicitor wouldn't take no-win no-fee as they said it was 51% chance of success and they need 70%.
So I have drafted my own ET1 to submit. If I submit it and then decide it's all a bit too much and withdraw, can my employer claim costs from me? Reading these forums, I wouldn't like to be on receiving end of some of the bullying tactics so if it came to it, I probably would want to walk away...
Thank for your advice...