Respondents solicitor/Bundle

ScaredButHopeful

Hi

Im due in tribunal in just over 4 weeks.

I am representing myself and have had many run ins with the respondents solicitor.

He applied to have some evidence thrown out and we received a letter back saying the judge has noted the content. No decision either way was given as I contested it.

Fast forward and the bundle has exchanged.
I received a copy of the first bundle which is mainly their evidence.
I asked for proof of the second bundle and he didnt reply to that part.
Next thing the bundles are close to the exchange date and delivered.

All is fine with the first bundle as that holds the majority of their evidence, but the second bundle has split a lot of my text messages up.
I paginated them when I gave them and theyve arrived as in
Page 1 - One piece of a text message
Page 72 - Second page of first conversation
Page 27 - Page 3 of conversation and so on.

The solicitor said he did the best he could with the time and the onus was on me to make them clearer.
I paginated them and as they were running conversation, I didnt write the date on them all as I thought by putting them in chronological order, he would do the same by page numbers!

I get their job is to cause me as much grief as possible (and its working) but he writes everything on a
Without Prejudice basis so I cant use it.
He has used snippets (to the tribunal) of when Ive fought back (which is the start of a fraught conversation that has then been rectified) but left it at that. So rather than telling the truth about how Ive worked with him, hes using the bad parts only.
Also has put me on a warning regarding prejudice conversation and twists everything thats said.

He has written to the tribunal again today so Ive had to defend myself as he said he is adding to the bundle and I cant do nothing about it. He said up until the hearing so I said you cant see my evidence and then add!
He says he can do what he likes as he knows the law and I don’t.
He has of course played this down to the tribunal and said its only one piece of evidence.

Hes also asking for more evidence that I gave reasons not to include (financial statements where I told my psychiatrist how I am financially. But this included a personal conversation about my husband’s finances and hea not on trial here so I crossed that out) and he baits me none stop.
A month ago he dropped this evidence and now demanding it again.

In one breath they put forward an insulting settlement and when I dont accept, he causes mayhem and says Im lying! And of course he writes it better than I can as I have emotion in mine.

Im too scared to approach the tribunal with all this as its been like 2 year olds in a playground and Im scared the judge will throw the claim out over behaviour.

But my bundles a mess.
It will confuse the panel no end as its confusing me and they are my evidence!

Is there any easy remedy to this?

I know this is nothing compared to what the hearing will be but im getting myself really upset and stressed over it all.

Thanks in advance

sangie595

Other than complain to the tribunal again, which probably won't be very effective, all you can do is produce your own bundle. But if you can show the tribunal that your evidence was properly sorted, they may assist. I can't see what you provided, so I can't really comment on whether it was easy to sort through it or not.

And yes, actually you can both add evidence to the tribunal - in fact it is possible to get the tribunal to add evidence during the case if you can argue its relevance and reasons it couldn't be disclosed earlier. It's fairly obvious really - if one party includes evidence that the other one wasn't expecting, they are entitled to add clarifying or rebuttal evidence. That the point of disclosure.

A judge very rarely throws a complaint out over behaviour, and you'd have to do something quite out of the ordinary to have that happen.

And I'm sorry about the rest of it, but he's a lawyer. His job is to represent his client to the best of his ability, and whilst I can see how difficult this may be for you, there is nothing "Playground" or childish about what he will be doing. You have hit the nail on the head yourself- you are personally invested in this, so your perspective is off. He doesn't care, it's a job and nothing more.

ScaredButHopeful

They are text messages and emails that the solicitor asked to be disregarded.
Previous cover ups and managers making others take the blame.

Also one of their witnesses has put through a brief statement early on and it contradicts everything that she text me over the period of a year.

So shes not credible. I appreciate shes worried for her job too but she shouldnt have lied to throw me under the bus.

I whistleblew, I stand by it and within 2 weeks I was demoted for poor performance.

Other people in the office got in trouble, as everyone does at times, and these have all been pinned on me to make it look like I was struggling.
Obviously i made the odd mistake, i havent denied it as im human, but nothing to get in trouble over.
But suddenly, im a serious concern to the company etc

So the evidence has been placed erratically in the bundle which im guessing was his effort to stress me.

Im calm again today, and I get the evidence disclosure but he just constantly baits me and puts me on warnings but I will woman up and deal with it.

Thank you for replying

Brynsam

Don't know where you live, but possibly the FRU could help: http://www.thefru.org.uk/Employment-Self-Referral

sangie595

He is not baiting you. He is doing his job. This is not personal. So what you need to do is try to take a step away from feeling it's personal. You aren't helping your own case by getting yourself tied up in feeling it's personal. I know that's hard to do, but it has to be done. Otherwise you will not be focusing on what you need to do.

ScaredButHopeful

Thank you Brynsam.

Unfortunately I have a 5 day hearing and they only cover the max of 2 days but very grateful for the link

ScaredButHopeful

Thank you Sangie595

I do understand now. Just had a bit of a mad panic but Im back on track and focusing on the positives of the case.

But thank you for the advice