Tag Archives: costs

Dismissal for religious beliefs plays well in theatre drama – but as reason or context? (UK)

What with God, theatre and lesbians, the recent EAT decision in Omooba – v – Michael Garrett Associates and Another might truly be said to be the case that has it all.  Sadly the legal points underneath the facts are rather more prosaic, but this ruling is nonetheless worth noting for their possible practical application … Continue Reading

When the Employment Tribunal bites back (and when it doesn’t) (UK)

Two recent cases on how Employment Tribunals should handle the inappropriate conduct of proceedings by claimants have shed some useful light on their more punitive powers.  Both decisions made clear that the ET is far more interested in getting to a fair trial of the issue despite such conduct than in thumping claimants because of … Continue Reading

When is refusing a settlement offer the reasonable conduct of ET proceedings? (UK)

Don’t you just love a good understatement? How about this little beauty on the merits of a rejected flexible working complaint: “The difficulty for the claimant is that she never proved that this arrangement could work by producing the required amount of work in the required time. This was both in terms of quality and … Continue Reading

Careless talk, costs, lies: EAT upholds £170,000 costs award (UK)

It’s all about the numbers in Brooks -v- Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, a new case on when an Employment Tribunal can order costs against an unsuccessful participant – 18 alleged protected disclosures, 40 detriments, a 27-day hearing, a witness statement of 214 pages and over a thousand paragraphs and a hearing bundle of well … Continue Reading

That’s another fine mess – a comedy of errors in Tribunal’s penalty regime

High up on the list of candidates for 2014’s Most Nakedly Transparent Political Gesture Awards was the introduction of a new Section 12A into the Employment Tribunals Act 1996. This was a measure designed to bring bad employers to heel in the Employment Tribunal by the imposition of financial penalties of between £100-£5,000 where the … Continue Reading

Beware the possible costs of rejecting a good offer in Australian Fair Work cases

The Fair Work jurisdiction in Australia is generally considered a ‘no costs’ jurisdiction, meaning that even if a party is successful in an action, it is usually unable to obtain a costs order against the loser. However in 2012 the Fair Work Amendment Act 2012 (Cth) widened the exceptions to the ‘no costs’ rule by … Continue Reading

Making legal advisers liable for your wasted costs – quite a privilege

Have you ever looked at the other side’s Schedule of Loss in a Tribunal case and wondered if he inhabits the same legal system you do? Employment Tribunals routinely require such Schedules to try to bring some order and boundaries to both sides’ financial thinking, but this does not always work.  Sometimes the compensation at … Continue Reading

Backing a new employee in restrictive covenant proceedings can be costly

Earlier this month, the New South Wales Supreme Court in Australia ordered costs against an employer which funded an employee’s defence of restraint proceedings instigated by his former employer. HRX Pty Ltd v Scott is the latest in a series of legal spats involving human resourcing companies Talent2 and HRX. In this case, HRX employed … Continue Reading
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