Employment tribunal witness statement

CazzieT

I am getting organised as a claimant in a potential employment tribunal and am having difficulty understanding the difference between the claimant's 'story' as told in the ET1 form and their witness statement as they are surely going to be very similar. I presume that some of the witness statement will be commenting on/countering the response of the respondent on their ET3 form but I'd be grateful for any advice - wouldn't want to repeat the same thing if this is unnecessary!

Crazy_Jamie

In civil proceedings generally, the Particulars of Claim and witness statements are very separate documents that deal with different things. However, the content of the ET1 in employment proceedings is usually significant more detailed than a Particulars of Claim would be, and as such you are quite right that the ET1 and witness statement of the claimant can be very similar.

You will inevitably be repeating a lot of information in the witness statement that was already in the ET1. One thing to bear in mind is that the ET1 is the overarching case, whilst the witness statement is purely from the perspective of the Claimant. Therefore if you have more than one witness you have to bear in mind that the content of the Claimant's witness is the Claimant's evidence and no one else's.

Overall, the main difference between the two documents is precisely that the witness statement will be drafted with sight both of the ET3 and documents that have been disclosed. As such, make sure that you refer to key and relevant documents (by use of page numbers) in the witness statement, and respond to points made in the ET3 where appropriate. Remember that it is a witness statement and not a skeleton argument, so it is still evidence, but can be used to rebut arguments where they can be dealt with in a relevant manner. Overall the ability to respond to the ET3 and make reference to the documents in the bundle mean that you can use the witness statement to tie your case together in a more cogent way than it is presented in the ET1. There will be repetition, but the witness statement should be a more focused and updated document.

zzzLazyDaisy

The ET1 is normally an outline of what happened, with enough detail for the tribunal to know there is a case to answer.

The statement is much more detailed, setting out what happened in chronological order. The statement needs to say everything you want the tribunal to hear, as this is your statement of evidence under oath.

So you would probably start something like this

1 My name is Cazzie and my address is [address]
2 I was employed by the Respondent as a [job title] from [date] to [date] when I was [dismissed for gross misconduct, or whatever]
3 I wish to make a complaint of unfair dismissal against the Respondent
4 Brief details of my claim are set out in my ET1
5 The events leading to my dismissal and my reasons for asserting that my dismissal was unfair are set out in the paragraphs below
6 [start from the beginning and explain what happened in short paragraphs]
7
8
9 etc

As you are explaining what happened if you get to a bit of the ET3 that you don't agree with, you can slot it in, saying something like, I note in that in the Respondent's ET3 they claim that [......]. I ask the tribunal to note that I dispute their version of events. The set out what actually happened for your point of view.

When you have finished your statement, you should end it by saying

I confirm that the contents of this statement are true to the best of my knowledge and belief, then sign and date the statement.

Hope this helps

Dx

CazzieT

Thank you both for the helpful replies. My 'story' fills the whole ET form and it is a chronological sequence of paragraphs demarcated by bullet points. This is probably how the witness statement should look but I don't think I can cut anything out without losing some of the relevant detail. I can see that having the ET3 response and bundle documents will give something extra to respond to though.

zzzLazyDaisy

You don't need to cut anything out. In effect you have put your statement in your ET1. So start with that as a framework, and insert any extra paragraphs to respond to points raised in the ET3, and the documents.

Also where you want to refer to documents, it is useful to insert at the end of the relevant paragraph "(see page ....)" The number will be the page number(s) of the final bundle of documents. This makes ensures that the tribunal are directed to the specific documents that you want them to read. This is important because although the tribunal has the full bundle, strictly they can only consider in their decision documents that they have been expressly referred to, either by a witness, or by the legal representative in summing up. So from your point of view, the easiest way is to insert a paragraph in your statement at the appropriate place, referring to the document and giving the page number.

Depending on when the statements and final bundle are exchanged, you may have to exchange your statement with blank page numbers. This is fine, you can add the page numbers in (by hand or on the computer) after you get the bundle, and then provide numbered copies. This is allowed provided you do not change the statement in any way apart from adding the numbers, which is why you need to insert (page ...) into the statement from the start, so you can go back and fill in the numbers without disturbing the rest of the statement.

Hope that makes sense?

Dx

Crazy_Jamie

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

You don't need to cut anything out. In effect you have put your statement in your ET1. So start with that as a framework, and insert any extra paragraphs to respond to points raised in the ET3, and the documents.

Indeed, just to clarify when I described the witness statement as a more 'focused' document, I didn't mean that it should be shorter. What I meant is that the ET1 has a habit of being something of a scattergun document in that it will allege a lot of different things. By the time the witness statement comes to be drafted it may well be that it is more obvious where the real issues are, and it may be that some issues have fallen away and are no longer live. That is why I described the witness statement as more focused, because the case will have progressed and you can deal with the relevant issues rather than spending time on matters that may no longer be in issue.

CazzieT

Great, thanks again to you both - this is all very useful info and not easily found on the various employment law websites (and there are dozens!).

CazzieT

Just to confirm, am I right in thinking that there shouldn't be any surprises in the employer's witness statement introducing points that weren't made in the ET3? I'm thinking that, if there were, there might be documents missing from the bundle that I'd have wanted included if I'd known earlier.

Crazy_Jamie

There shouldn't be any entirely new issues or points raised. Of course that doesn't mean there won't be, but if there is something in there that is entirely new you can always point out in the tribunal that it wasn't raised in the ET3, and invite the Judge to attach less weight to it accordingly.

zzzLazyDaisy

As jamie says, there shouldn't be any entirely new issues, but the ET3 is just the outline of their defence; the statements will be a more in depth statement of the facts as each witness has experienced them. So it is entirely possible that someone may say something that you did not already know.

But statements are exchanged around two weeks before the actual hearing (the exact timetable depends on the individual tribunal). If something is said which leads to you wishing to produce additional documents to refute the asssertion, you just need to copy them to the respondent with a note saying something like:

In the light of the evidence contained in Joe Smith's statement I shall wish to refer to the enclosed documents which please add to the bundle as pages .....' (you would probably simply add them to the bundle as continuation pages, so the numbers would follow on from the last page)

Hope this helps

Dx

Laid_Back_Len

I have read all the comments earlier this year - very helpfull indeed and thank you all.

However I have a problem - I am a Claimant in a potential employment tribunal and am trying to compile my Witness Statement. Mu ET1 was completed by a solicitor (who is no longer acting for me - only interestedin his fee, so I am now on my own) and is poor on detail. The ET3 was received and I compiled a vey detailed response to this, titled, Grounds Of Response by Respondent - Inaccuracies / Corrections by Claimant which has just been divulged in my Claimants Document Bundle together with other documents ,sent to Respondents solicitors - a large part of which I had earlier sent in a very detailed to Respondents solicitors(and a copy to Employment Tribunal) so I have already repeated myself, to a large extent. So how do I now compile my Witness Statement for maximum impact, I would welcome any advice - as I do not want to bore the Judge to death!?!