Increased Capacity and Efficiency The backlog and lack of capacity in the tribunal system has been clear for some time (even pre-Covid).  To help solve this, as well as remote hearings, Non-employment judges are now sitting as employment judges in order to increase capacity.   Legal Officer duties will also extend. Other Amendments Judges will have far…
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In my previous blog I talked about what you should do if an Employment Tribunal Claim (ET1) lands on your desk.  With the rise in Employment Tribunal claims, this is an eventuality that many businesses will face at some point. In this blog I want to talk about the steps you can take to minimise…
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The number of Employment Tribunal claims has risen by 150% since the abolition of Tribunal fees in July 2017.  Although there have been some hints that the Government is contemplating re-introducing ET fees, this won’t be happening any time soon.  Their ‘to do list’ is quite long at the moment, plus it’s clear that if…
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The Ministry of Justice’s representative (when answering questions in the House of Commons), has confirmed that the Government is working on reintroducing fees for individuals seeking to pursue claims in the Tribunal. The Supreme Court decision in the UNISON case last year (see our update here) found the previous fee system to be unlawful. However,…
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The Law Commission’s present review of the 3-month limitation period for bringing Employment Tribunal (ET) claims provides an interesting opportunity for reflection. Why 3? Apart from equal pay and redundancy pay claims, where the limitation period has been 6 months for decades, the 3-month window for all other ET claims is something with most of…
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What do we already know? We updated you in our July 2017 Newsflash Tribunal fees unlawful – enormous impact that the Supreme Court ruled Tribunal fees unlawful and removed them with immediate effect, including retrospectively all the way back to their start in July 2013. The Supreme Court’s decision also meant the refunding of all…
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Amongst all the noise about the Supreme Court’s decision to quash Employment Tribunal fees, another recent decision, made at the opposite end of the judicial hierarchy, has rather slipped under the radar. Given that you’ll have seen endless opinions on UNISON v Lord Chancellor I thought it might be more interesting to share some thoughts…
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This is the second in my very occasional series of blogs on the overlap between the worlds of professional cycling and employment law. The Tour de France has recently finished and while I wait for the Vuelta (the tour of Spain) to start I have been reflecting on one incident. It was on Stage 4…
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What do we already know? We updated you in our Newsflash Tribunal fees – the aftermath that the Presidents of the Employment Tribunals had issued Case Management Orders staying all Tribunal claims or applications brought in reliance on the Supreme Court’s decision to abolish Tribunal fees. What’s new? The stay on claims has been lifted…
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What do we already know? We updated you in our July Newsflash Tribunal fees unlawful – enormous impact that the Supreme Court has ruled that Tribunal fees are unlawful and have struck them down, not just with immediate effect but also back-dated to their inception in July 2013. We also described the potential for ‘historical’ claims…
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