default judgement

gocat

I was dismissed as unfit for duty after being off sick for about 6 months. I had worked with the company for 30 years.
I took them to tribunal via a solicitor which is funded by my home insurance.
ET1 was submitted and employers have failed to respond after 6 weeks. So solicitor has applied for default judgement.

What I would like to know is how long does this usually take for the judge to make, well a judgement, and how common is it for employers to not respond to a ET1.

TIA

harrys_dad

Doesn't your solicitor have that information? Isn't that what they are paid for?

bluetownbarry

Wow, that was a *helpful* reply.

I couldn't give you a clue as to timeframes, but applying for a default judgement doesn't necessarily mean there will be a quick conclusion for you. I'm surprised that your former employers haven't responded but it isn't unusual.

If they continue to ignore this, you will get a judgement in your favour. This may not be the end of the matter - once the judgement has been served this normally awakens employers & it's comparatively easy to get a judgement set aside if they can prove the ET1 wasn't served correctly for instance.

For the time being, I would sit back and see what happens when your solicitor applies for the default judgment, then get in touch with your solicitor to see what (if any) response has been received from your ex-employer.

After 30 years service it seems almost incomprehensible they haven't responded - out of interest, are they a large or small company?

gocat

harrys_dad wrote: »

Doesn't your solicitor have that information? Isn't that what they are paid for?

Well I was just wondering if anyone had been through this before and had any idea.

gocat

bluetownbarry wrote: »

Wow, that was a *helpful* reply.

I couldn't give you a clue as to timeframes, but applying for a default judgement doesn't necessarily mean there will be a quick conclusion for you. I'm surprised that your former employers haven't responded but it isn't unusual.

If they continue to ignore this, you will get a judgement in your favour. This may not be the end of the matter - once the judgement has been served this normally awakens employers & it's comparatively easy to get a judgement set aside if they can prove the ET1 wasn't served correctly for instance.

For the time being, I would sit back and see what happens when your solicitor applies for the default judgment, then get in touch with your solicitor to see what (if any) response has been received from your ex-employer.

After 30 years service it seems almost incomprehensible they haven't responded - out of interest, are they a large or small company?

Thank you for your helpful reply. Solicitor applied for default judgment about 3 weeks ago and Im just impatient lol. Everything just seems to take so long. Im surprised you say it is not that unusual as I cant seem to find much info about it on here.
My ex employers are quiet a large company.

Savvy_Sue

Unfortunately your solicitor applying for a default judgement doesn't mean you'll get it, I believe it's not uncommon for the company to respond at that point with "oh sorry, we let that slip, no we'd like to contest that ..."

harrys_dad

bluetownbarry wrote: »

Wow, that was a *helpful* reply.

It was not specifically intended to be "helpful" or "unhelpful", just an expression of some frustration that the solicitor, who is being paid to do this, does not appear to have done the basics of keeping their client informed of why they have done this, how long it will take, what the chances of success are etc etc.

I was interested to know if the OP had asked the solicitor the questions that have been posed here and if so what the answers were.