Employment Tribunal Advice Please

Converse20

Steampowered,

The disclosed hundreds of pages of documents, sent by email hours before the hearing.

Following this, I have asked for further documents which disprove what they are trying to prove (or what I think they are trying to prove) with thier documents.

Converse20

Annandale, me and the respondents rep have always requested documents this way without issue.

It would tie up the tribunal if we were to ask for every last thing.

annandale

But they are ignoring you so it makes sense to ask for an order.

Are you going to get some legal advice as you suggested in one of your earlier posts?

Converse20

I did state in my post that my next step was to contact the tribunal. I just asked if anyone could shed any light before I did that.

And yes. I do intend to seek legal advice. I will still be running the case myself and will represent myself. But I will be seeking advice and will get the claim valued.

annandale

To be fair I think it might be quite a tough one to work out why your employer might be ignoring you, it could be for any number of reasons.

steampowered

Converse20 wrote: »

Also, now that I've been given leave to make a claim for unfair dismissal (which I've done) do I completly change my case, or have two cases ready? Or (which I would prefer to be the case) does this mean that I can use case law related to u fair dismissal cases to prove my case of whistleblowing. I do still of course maintain that I was dismissed for whistleblowing but as far as I can see, having 2 years service only makes this easier to prove.

Yes, if you are making an unfair dismissal claim I would have thought that should be dealt with alongside the whistleblowing claim. It is very normal for more than one legal claim to be dealt with at the same hearing as the claims are clearly related.

I'm not precisely clear on what you have actually been given leave to do.

Where is the unfair dismissal claim set out. It needs to be set out somewhere and that would usually mean the ET1. Is the fact that you are claiming unfair dismissal set out in the ET1 already, or do you need to get your ET1 amended?

Converse20 wrote: »

Following this, I have asked for further documents which disprove what they are trying to prove (or what I think they are trying to prove) with thier documents.

Yes, but what documents are you actually asking for?

If you got an order from the Tribunal it would say something like "The Respondents are ordered to disclose XXX to the Claimant by no later than 28 February 2017". You would need to tell the Tribunal what you want the order to say. So what would XXX be?

I agree of course with the suggestion of obtaining proper legal advice to help you with this, as suggestions given by strangers who only have part of the story is not an adequate substitute, however I do appreciate this might not be possible on cost grounds.

Converse20

So the original claim from the ET1 was unfair dismissal following PID.

The Ordinary unfair dismissal part was withdrawn in the first preliminary hearing. However there was no judgement ending this part of the claim as required.

The judge therefore allowed me to resubmit a new unfair dismissal claim which has now been consolidated with the PID claim and is listed for April to decide if it should be allowed to continue. iE is it out of time. Obviously it is out of time, but we look at if I have fair reason to say that I couldn't have made it earlier.

My reasons for not making it earlier, or for allowing it to be struck out, were that I didn't know firstly that my EDT was later due to my dismissal being emailed and also due to me not knowing about the section 86 (I think I mean 86) rule allowing the fiction of 1 extra week making it 2 years.

If this is accepted, then both claims will go ahead. If not the back to where we started with the whistleblowing and no 2 years service.
Am I correct in that with both I can reference unfair dismissal case law with persons with 2 years service? And without that it wouldn't be relevant?

When I put my case together I reference unfair dismissal parts of my case which I could with the new part of the hearing (unless I'm understanding it wrong)

I am getting legal advice but I can't afford much time so I would like to have a case more or less preprared so that I can use the time wisely.

Converse20

I've emailed the Tribunal and requested an order for the documents to be supplied. These documents are needed, is there a chance that I won't get them? They aren't something that doesn't exist or that will be at all difficult to locate for them. But they are something that I can't get access to myself and obv it only supports my case, which makes things worse for them.

steampowered

As I am unsure what documents you are requesting, I am unable to comment on whether the Tribunal would be likely to grant an order for disclosure of those documents.

Obviously it is out of time, but we look at if I have fair reason to say that I couldn't have made it earlier.

Extensions on the ground of fairness are only available for discrimination claims. For unfair dismissal claims, the time can only be extended if it was not "reasonably practicable" for that claim to be presented before the end of the relevant period, which is a much stricter test.

It is difficult to comment without having all of the detail and seen the documents, but I would have thought if the original ET1 contained an unfair dismissal allegation perhaps that would bring you within the time limit.

Am I correct in that with both I can reference unfair dismissal case law with persons with 2 years service? And without that it wouldn't be relevant?

It depends if the case is relevant or not. That depends on what you are citing the case for. Many aspects of those cases would be relevant if you get past the length of service issue.

If you are going to cite case law, the judgment needs to be in the bundle and you should to be able to refer to the relevant paragraphs from the judgment. Don't assume the Tribunal is familiar with the case you are referring to or that they can remember what is in the judgment.

Mersey_2

Converse20 - re their witness being present.


It happens in most cases, but...


I would disagree with CrazyJamie's assertion, "that in the County Court it is standard for witnesses to sit in Court throughout."


It depends on the issues in the case - but it largely depends on whether you have made your objections known to the Court (preferably in advance).


For example, I was present at a County Court Trial, where 2 of the claimants were caught - by the Usher during the lunch adjournment - texting each other what to say. The Judge therefore gave them the choice of either being referred for Contempt or paying the Defendant (Insurer & solicitors') costs in full.


So in many circumstances I can think of it would be entirely inappropriate during the course of eg a 1 - 5 Day hearing, for the parties to make contact with each while the matter is part-heard (ie part way through). Usually the Judge will make this clear at the outset, as should their legal reps.


However, by its very nature I am sure you will be aware that an employer may hold case conferences with their witnesses and legal reps prior to any Trial or ET - although they shouldn't be 'coached' as to what to say.


If you have specific concerns - that you feel x may taint y's evidence - raise this with the lawyer you are seeking advice from, but also with the Tribunal at the earliest opportunity.