This blog may end up sounding like a public service announcement on behalf of employment judges but the meaning is well-intended.
The Employment Tribunal system was created as a way to resolve employment disputes and to be used by people representing themselves. Over the years it has become a hunting ground for lawyers and more and more people litigate using lawyers but a huge proportion of claims brought in the ET are conducted by people acting either on their own behalf or on behalf of a friend, spouse, relative. We call these people Litigants in Person or LIPs.
The Employment Tribunals have over time absorbed quite a lot of the language of the civil court system, largely I suspect because of the major City law firms who use it and who have "contaminated" the system with legal jargon largely with the aim I am sure of making it more unfathomable to the lay person. I am not going to suggest that it is easy to undertake a case without a legal representative but it is by no means prohibitive to a litigant in person and a good judge will provide an appropriate level of assistance for a claimant who has no legal representation.
The thing I find a little frustrating, both on behalf of lawyers who might start to work on cases that people have started themselves and certainly on behalf of employment judges is that LIPs think their statement of case or Form ET1 needs to be voluminous and to detail every single event that ever happened at work that was displeasing. It can be nigh on impossible to weed out the legal claims that the person seeks to establish and I would imagine this is incredibly frustrating for ET judges who are short of time resource. Claimants – even ones who have legal reps – seem to think that chapter and verse is required at this stage of the pleading. When I say pleading I am referring to the thing that you want the tribunal to rectify – what are you complaining about and what are you asking the tribunal to determine?
I heard anecdotally this week of a claim form that was 458 pages long. Can you imagine trying to get to grips with what the underlying case is? We deal with clients who are shocked that we want to summarise their statement of case in a few pages. They want to tell the full story. There is a time and place for this: it's called a witness statement.
So, on behalf of the ET judges who are overwhelmed and in the best interests of your case strip it back to the absolute bear bones and decide what you are asking the tribunal to determine. It could be as simple as 'have I suffered sex discrimination because on returning to work from maternity my junior male colleague got the promotion I had been promised'. And what you are asking the tribunal to do. Award compensation?
Provided you state the legal basis of your claim (what breach of law has taken place) you will have plenty more time as the process proceeds to flesh out the details. You will also get a better attitude from a judge who sees that you are reasonable and very clear on what you want the ET to decide. At the very most you should not write more than a few pages if that. It will get your case off to a much more positive start to have a judge somewhat onside. And if your lawyer tells you to keep it brief, listen to their advice. They are the experts.
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