ACAS pushing for a settlement

Mr.Bump

sulkisu wrote: »

You don't have to persevere with ACAS. You can ignore their advice, tell them that you no longer require their help and then wait until August and have your day in court (which is what you wanted to do in the first place - much better than going along with them and then trying to sue them afterwards).

Thank you for your opinion:beer:
I did not want to sue anyone and do not want to sue ACAS. I only ended up at this stage by requesting reasonable adjustment, I was very lucky that I did not miss the three month time limit. I knew none of this when I started this process but I am learning fast.

It was only after speaking to friend who has worked as complaint officer that I got really upset about the way I have been treat!:mad:

Mr.Bump

pawpurrs wrote: »

When I took my claim to ET, I never even heard from ACAS, would have been happy to have settled out of court, but the outcome was such that it worked better that we did go to court.

Sorry, I did not reply earlier, thank you for your post!:beer:
I have been told that there is now a lot of pressure in the system to get as many cases settled before they get to court. I have a employment lawyer friend who helped me but he cannot at the moment because of family reasons. So this is the first time I had to deal with them and I am just surprised with their tone and attitude.

Advocatus

The nonsense I am seeing on this thread aside, ACAS is not supposed to take the place of a legal advisor or give legal advice.

My understanding is that ACAS promote themslves as skilled negotiators, they are not legal advisors. Therefore, if you are unsure about the legal position it would be wise to seek advice and sort the merits of your claim out.

In my experience, ACAS simply transmits each side's position and tries to bring about a conclusion. The fact that they are speaking in detail to both side, would mean there is a conflict of interest and their advice is unlikely to be completely impartial.

If you think you have a case and the settlement they are suggesting does not adequately compensate you, then do not settle. I would however, make sure that you receive proper legal advice. Employment litigation is complex and at the moment there is an influx of claims. The Courts are seeing a lot of BS claims and are being harsh about throwing them out. Disability discrimination is a pretty compliacted area and the case law on reasonable adjustments has encompassed all kinds of "adjustments" as necessary.

I have not read the entirety of this thread given the squabbling, so I apologise if I missed something material.

Mr.Bump

Thank you for the reply.

I am sorry for the squabbling someone give me attitude and I give it back. I did not want to give the whole details of my case on a public forum. I just wanted to know if anyone else had felt that ACAS was putting unwarranted pressure on people to settle up before an ET hearing. I have an expert on disability employment issues when available and ACAS know this yet when he is not available they are trying this on.

I did wish to settle but now I just wish to speak to the court and explain how the lack of reasonable adjustment made me feel. Also they way that they went about trying to solve the issue ended up making it worse.