Employment Tribunal- Non compliance of Orders

Undervalued

sheilatakeabow89 said:

smmjh11 said:

Hi
When I represented myself and had to attend a preliminary hearing the Judge gave a clear timeline for the sequence of events. The schedule of loss, the date to exchange witness statements and also for me to receive a copy of the bundle of documents for the hearing these all had to be done by a certain date. I did request at my preliminary hearing a copy of a transcript of a meeting that was recorded. The judge asked the respondent to do this although it was not noted on the judges orders. When I asked the respondents solicitor for a copy of this they said that it was not for them to do, so I emailed the tribunal office dealing with my case who then informed the judge he then sent out an order for the respondent to make a copy of the transcript and they complied with the order. 

I would suggest that you email the tribunal office dealing with your case and clearly identify what orders the respondent has failed to do as requested by the judges orders. Whenever I sent the respondent a request for any documents I always copied in the tribunal as well.
Just for information I represented myself and came up against a Barrister and was still successful in my claim so it can be done. The documentation for me was crucial in winning my case and I caught out the managers when I cross examined them. Don't be bullied by any threats of the respondent before the hearing trying to claim costs if you are unsuccessful as this is very rare and they only award if the claim has no real merit and was vexatious. The judge could request a deposit order at the preliminary hearing if he believes that a specific allegation has little reasonable prospect of success which never happened at my preliminary hearing.

They already requested I pay a deposit and it was declined by the judge. 

I’m happy for you that you succeeded and thank you for your reply! X

A routine part of trying to intimidate a litigant in person!

As has been said, for costs to be awarded at an employment tribunal you have to do far, far worse than just lose. Broadly your case either has to have so little merit that it should never have been brought or be vexatious. 

So, the judge declining the deposit request only means your case is not completely hopeless. It doesn't mean he thinks it is good! It may very well be excellent of course, that hasn't been decided yet! 

sheilatakeabow89

Undervalued said:

sheilatakeabow89 said:

smmjh11 said:

Hi
When I represented myself and had to attend a preliminary hearing the Judge gave a clear timeline for the sequence of events. The schedule of loss, the date to exchange witness statements and also for me to receive a copy of the bundle of documents for the hearing these all had to be done by a certain date. I did request at my preliminary hearing a copy of a transcript of a meeting that was recorded. The judge asked the respondent to do this although it was not noted on the judges orders. When I asked the respondents solicitor for a copy of this they said that it was not for them to do, so I emailed the tribunal office dealing with my case who then informed the judge he then sent out an order for the respondent to make a copy of the transcript and they complied with the order. 

I would suggest that you email the tribunal office dealing with your case and clearly identify what orders the respondent has failed to do as requested by the judges orders. Whenever I sent the respondent a request for any documents I always copied in the tribunal as well.
Just for information I represented myself and came up against a Barrister and was still successful in my claim so it can be done. The documentation for me was crucial in winning my case and I caught out the managers when I cross examined them. Don't be bullied by any threats of the respondent before the hearing trying to claim costs if you are unsuccessful as this is very rare and they only award if the claim has no real merit and was vexatious. The judge could request a deposit order at the preliminary hearing if he believes that a specific allegation has little reasonable prospect of success which never happened at my preliminary hearing.

They already requested I pay a deposit and it was declined by the judge. 

I’m happy for you that you succeeded and thank you for your reply! X

A routine part of trying to intimidate a litigant in person!

As has been said, for costs to be awarded at an employment tribunal you have to do far, far worse than just lose. Broadly your case either has to have so little merit that it should never have been brought or be vexatious. 

So, the judge declining the deposit request only means your case is not completely hopeless. It doesn't mean he thinks it is good! It may very well be excellent of course, that hasn't been decided yet! 

It really did intimidate me and have me questioning myself before realising it is quite commonplace and something they have requested on most of their other ET cases from reading their judgements. 

I am confident it’s a good case but isn’t everyone who goes to these things! 

I’m absolutely prepared for going to tribunal mentally (although very nervous for it) as they didn’t engage with ACAS (well, asked for an extension to on the last day say ‘we won’t be taking part in EC’) so I think the key theme here is that they don’t want to cooperate in any manner. Any other tactics I should be aware of before getting stumped and panicking? 😂

ThePeopleDirector

You could ask the judge to issue an Unless order.

38.—(1) An order may specify that if it is not complied with by the date specified the claim or response, or part of it, shall be dismissed without further order. If a claim or response, or part of it, is dismissed on this basis the Tribunal shall give written notice to the parties confirming what has occurred.

(2) A party whose claim or response has been dismissed, in whole or in part, as a result of such an order may apply to the Tribunal in writing, within 14 days of the date that the notice was sent, to have the order set aside on the basis that it is in the interests of justice to do so. Unless the application includes a request for a hearing, the Tribunal may determine it on the basis of written representations.

(3) Where a response is dismissed under this rule, the effect shall be as if no response had been presented, as set out in rule 21.

(Rule 21 basically says the case is considered by a judge based on your evidence only - it does not mean that you win by default).

sheilatakeabow89

Undervalued said:

sheilatakeabow89 said:

smmjh11 said:

Hi
When I represented myself and had to attend a preliminary hearing the Judge gave a clear timeline for the sequence of events. The schedule of loss, the date to exchange witness statements and also for me to receive a copy of the bundle of documents for the hearing these all had to be done by a certain date. I did request at my preliminary hearing a copy of a transcript of a meeting that was recorded. The judge asked the respondent to do this although it was not noted on the judges orders. When I asked the respondents solicitor for a copy of this they said that it was not for them to do, so I emailed the tribunal office dealing with my case who then informed the judge he then sent out an order for the respondent to make a copy of the transcript and they complied with the order. 

I would suggest that you email the tribunal office dealing with your case and clearly identify what orders the respondent has failed to do as requested by the judges orders. Whenever I sent the respondent a request for any documents I always copied in the tribunal as well.
Just for information I represented myself and came up against a Barrister and was still successful in my claim so it can be done. The documentation for me was crucial in winning my case and I caught out the managers when I cross examined them. Don't be bullied by any threats of the respondent before the hearing trying to claim costs if you are unsuccessful as this is very rare and they only award if the claim has no real merit and was vexatious. The judge could request a deposit order at the preliminary hearing if he believes that a specific allegation has little reasonable prospect of success which never happened at my preliminary hearing.

They already requested I pay a deposit and it was declined by the judge. 

I’m happy for you that you succeeded and thank you for your reply! X

A routine part of trying to intimidate a litigant in person!

As has been said, for costs to be awarded at an employment tribunal you have to do far, far worse than just lose. Broadly your case either has to have so little merit that it should never have been brought or be vexatious. 

So, the judge declining the deposit request only means your case is not completely hopeless. It doesn't mean he thinks it is good! It may very well be excellent of course, that hasn't been decided yet! 

Could I pick your brain again? 

I wrote to the tribunal who then asked the respondent to ‘respond to claimants email’ and were given a date. They replied at quarter to midnight that day (conveniently) apologising and offering up a new timeline for orders. 

They finish saying that because the tribunal isn’t until ‘date’ that I won’t suffer because of this.... this means I still won’t have responses for months. All the while they have had my actual documents of evidence for months. I am representing myself with a newborn and an older kid at home and while I’d have 3 months with the bundle until the tribunal I just don’t think that’s enough time for me to juggle everything. Also a very unfair timeline for them to have 6 months with my evidence longer than I will have theirs. 

Can I ask for this new timeline offered by them  to be rejected? 

MatthewReb

Hi All,
Firstly good luck sheilatakeabow89!
Thought I'd try my luck based on all the good advice around non compliance.
Background: I'm taking a company to Tribunal for discrimination. At the preliminary hearing, the Judge ordered specific disclosure for all ethnic minority employees that had been dismissed over the last three years. The Respondent's sent an email to the tribunal indicating that no ethnic minority employees had been dismissed in 2017 or 2018. However, I knew for a fact that two ethnic minority employees had been dismissed. I reached out to them and sent their statements (where they confirm that they were indeed fired) to the tribunal. I  wrote "I contend that by not making this information available as part of specific disclosure the Respondent has acted scandalously and unreasonably intending to weaken my claims of discrimination, harassment and victimisation. They have failed to comply honestly with the Tribunal Order."
The tribunal emailed me back asking if I wanted them to act on this information and I applied to strike out the Respondent's response because a fundamental loss of trust had occurred.
The Respondent has emailed back today saying they object and that I don't have any grounds to apply for their defence to be struck out.
Question: I'm worried that I've made an idiot of myself and that this could affect my standing with the tribunal. Did I do the wrong thing?

Thanks for reading!