Employment Tribunal advice

trp

Hi, need advice on a crazy situation.

bought a car 18 months ago from a dealership and had some problems, the salesperson has since left the company and raised an employment tribunal claim against the dealership. The salesperson have sited me as a witness & i got a call today from their laywer demanding i attend the employment tribunal this week to give evidence. I got irrate with her attitude and told her in no uncertain terms to beat it.
She then phoned back and again demanded i attend the tribunal and threatened me with a witness order to force me to attend.

I have never worked with the salesperson and never worked in the garage yet i'm being sited as a witness in an employment matter for the salesperson against her company. Surely nothing i can say will have any relevance in an employment dispute, if anything the best it would be is to say "i got poor customer service" yet they are trying to force me to give evidence, against a garage that i still need to use.

The lawyer is adament that she will get the witness order, having looked tonight, there should be a minimum of 10 days notice & i just can't see what justification they can give the tribunal for ordering me to attend. Can they and the tribunal realisticly expect me to attend the tribunal mon-wed when they only gave me notice of it on the saturday when i have annual leave booked to look after my child on the first 2 days and have 5 meetings scheduled on the 3rd for my own place of work?

I also had a major arguement with the lawyer in regards to the salesperson clearly stealing personal information of mine (the only way the lawyer would get my home and mobile phone numbers), and frankly i want the lawyer and the individual punished as i see this as theft of information. If i raised a DPA claim then it would be against the garage, but these 2 would get off with it, what can i do in that regards?

denla

You can refuse to be a witness. Lawyer can't do anything if you say no.

trp

The witness order would force me though

denla

trp wrote: »

The witness order would force me though

You have no close relationship with salesman and can easily use the "I don't remember this salesman's face therefore I cannot act as a witness to someone who I don't even remember" excuse.

You can also refuse to attend if you're unable to take time off to attend court. Just get your employer to write a statement saying you're needed during that time. Employer won't need to prove why you're needed.

You can also be sick and unable to go on that week.

There's plenty of methods to work around a court summons when you're a witness. Long as you have reasonable excuse they can't make you appear as a witness.

denla

If you do get forced to appear in court, just pretend you don't remember anything that's happened 18 months ago. If the lawyer knows your memory sucks and won't be of any help, I doubt lawyer will bother getting a witness order. It's not illegal to forget events that's happened so long ago. I don't even remember what I ate for dinner last night.

trp

denla wrote: »

You have no close relationship with salesman and can easily use the "I don't remember this salesman's face therefore I cannot act as a witness to someone who I don't even remember" excuse.

You can also refuse to attend if you're unable to take time off to attend court. Just get your employer to write a statement saying you're needed during that time. Employer won't need to prove why you're needed.

You can also be sick and unable to go on that week.

There's plenty of methods to work around a court summons when you're a witness. Long as you have reasonable excuse they can't make you appear as a witness.

Thanks Let's hope so!

The lawyer actualy expected me to turn up on Monday, how a court order could be processed for me to attend on Monday is beyond me.

Their case must be very ropey if they think forcing a witness to turn up who could jeopardise her case is in their interest

denla

trp wrote: »

Thanks Let's hope so!

The lawyer actualy expected me to turn up on Monday, how a court order could be processed for me to attend on Monday is beyond me.

Their case must be very ropey if they think forcing a witness to turn up who could jeopardise her case is in their interest

You will be offered money for your loss of time and travel expenses if you do appear as a witness. Since it's less than 7 days, lawyer will need The Court’s permission. It won't be granted on time.