Consequences of loosing the case in Employment Tribunal

Pricivius

Presuming you sent the statement to their solicitors, they should not have read it as they have not yet sent theirs. This is a point to raise if the hearing goes ahead as it would be interesting to ask them in front of a judge - it is very tempting to read statements that are sent early or before you have sent yours, but it is very bad form and a judge would not be amused.

It sounds as though they are desperate to postpone and will be hanging their hopes on their application. It would not surprise me if the judge decides to go ahead with Monday's hearing simply to get everyone in one room to sort out whether or not the hearing can proceed.

As for your query regarding unreasonably refusing to accept an offer, this is possible, but the offers really should have been worded to advise you of this possibility. If you win, but the award is less than the company offered, you can be ordered to pay the company's costs from the offer refusal onwards. It is unusual, however, but can happen.

zzzLazyDaisy

katekat wrote: »

The hearing is actually on Monday, so that leaves us almost no time to prepare...
So with the settlement, if we turn down the offers and decide to go to the tribunal, can the judge decide that it was unreasonable to reject the offers and can it affect their decision on winning losing/ amount of the reward?

No. The tribunal is not interested in the settlement negotiations. They will not concern themselves with anything that has happened before the hearing. You will win or lose on the basis of the evidence before the tribunal.

You may get as far as the hearing itself - many cases are settled literally "at the door of the court". But at the same time, you have to be prepared to fight your case.

Pricivius

To clarify - the settlement negotiations will not interest the tribunal in deciding whether you win or lose, or what any award might be. But a losing party may make an application for costs based on the unreasonableness of the winning party in not accepting an earlier offer which bet the tribunal's award. It would be unusual but not impossible or unheard of.

zzzLazyDaisy

You are right - this is the case in county court/high court proceedings

BUT

it is very rare indeed in tribunal proceedings. For this to happen the claimant would have to be acting in bad faith, or maliciously, or the claim would have to be wholly misconceived.

Pricivius

I agree - far more likely in court, but not unheard of in tribunal.

katekat

These people are a joke! Still no sign of witness statements and they give some lousy explenation due to' internal reasons'.

katekat

Sorry, my story continues... We have got witness statements, clearly fabricated after submitting ours, as two of them have no signatures, just word documents...
All from Line Managers or senior Managers previously handling grievance and disciplinary. All of them are based around performance issues and poor time keeping. Loads of "on occasions" or "often" statements without clear examples. Only two real examples of time keeping issues, all took place after raising informal or formal grievance. No reference to the bundle documents at all in their statements.
Note - OH never had a formal documented performance or capability review prior or after the grievance.
We are now preparing for cross examination. Any advice on how to best tackle it? We have some idea, but any reference or tactick would help a lot.

Also - at the hearing itself, how the evidence is examined, apart from cross examining the witnesses? Will Judge be asking questions or just exchange between claimant and respondent?

spacey2012

You can ask for any unsigned statements to be omitted.

Pricivius

Unsigned statements are not a problem, as long as they are signed by the time the witness gives evidence to the tribunal. I have often exchanged unsigned statements as it can be difficult to get people to sign and scan them in time to it's easier to exchange unsigned and sign on the morning of the hearing.

Cross examination is tricky. The best advice I have heard is never ask a question you don't already know the answer to. If you don't know what the witness is going to say, you are risking them saying something which is going to harm your case.

At the hearing, each witness will be invited to confirm their identity and their statement and to confirm the statement is true. The witness's rep may ask the judge if they can ask some supplementary questions, which may be allowed or not. Then cross examination begins. The judge can interrupt at any time to ask questions or clarify answers. After cross examination by the opposition rep then there may be re-examination by the witness's rep if issues have arisen that need further explanation. The judge or lay members may have further questions. After that, the witness is usually stood down.

If there is anything in their statements which hasn't been raised previously and which you did not comment on in your statement, you can draft a supplemental statement to add these points. Set out at the start why you are having to do this - because their statements included issues which had not previously been raised. Do this as soon as possible as you will need to apply to the tribunal for permission for such statements to be admitted at the start of the hearing and it will help if the company have had prior notice.

Has the tribunal responded to the company's application to postpone yet?

katekat

Thank you for that. Yes, the tribunal responded and rejected the request. The hearing is on Monday.
We have just got the full medical report to add to the evidence, but we do not want to show it to the respondent before the hearing as we dont know what they can do with it....