Respectful Submission

This was an interesting case involving an Employment Tribunal in their judgement merely copying verbatim the respondents submissions or legal arguments and not referring to the claimants submissions at all.

The claimant appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal and the EAT upheld his appeal on the grounds that an Employment Tribunal must be seen to be fair and provide adequate reasons as to why a losing party has lost their case. It stands to reason that relying too heavily on a parties submissions a tribunal runs the risk of error.

For all litigants it will be a worthwhile exercise in cases where written submissions are made to a Tribunal to ensure that copies are obtained beforehand and, when a judgement is received to carefully analyse whether or not the written judgement too closely resembles the opposing parties submissions. If they do, then the potential for appeal certainly needs to be reviewed. Advice on these issues can be obtain on gda@hrlegalpartners.com

English v Royal Mail Group and another