Defending employment tribunal claims
Due to changes in employment legislation the receipt of an employment tribunal claim form is unlikely to be a shock. This is due to the fact that the employer will have been placed on notice by ACAS under their mandatory conciliation scheme that the employee in question was intending to make a claim. Therefore upon receipt of the claim form ET1 the likely initial concern will be around employment tribunal defence.
We have significant experience of successful employment tribunal defence. In fact, we have 100% success rate in defending employers in employment tribunals. We appear in employment tribunals throughout the UK.
Costs
Generally, each party bears their own costs in employment tribunal litigations. Therefore the employer, assuming that they are to issue instructions for the employment tribunal defence will have to pay an invoice for this significant piece of work.
Alternatively, our retained clients have the piece of mind knowing that upon receipt of any employment tribunal claim that we will deal with this matter on their behalf. Employment Tribunal defense is normally included within our retained service agreement fee.
We are open to employers taking advantage of the services included within our retained service agreement, including employment tribunal defence upon immediate inception of our services, subject to prior agreement.
Alternatively, we would be willing to provide initial advice about the claim plus a quote for defence of the employment tribunal claim outside of our retained agreement.
Submit your response
Once a claim is lodged the employee is called the claimant and the employer the respondent.
To start the employment tribunal defence the employers response must be on form ET3, provide the information required and be sent to the tribunal within 28 days. The precise date is set out in the correspondence enclosed with the ET1. It is possible to ask for an extension to this deadline but this must be done well before the deadline expires.
If the response is not on the ET3 and does not provide all of the information requested it is possible that the response could be rejected and sent back to the employer. Also if the response is not received within the 28 day deadline it is likely that it will be rejected and the employer may not be permitted to take part in the proceedings. In this situation the tribunal is likely to give a default judgment meaning that the employer cannot take part in the proceedings and the case will move to a hearing to decide how much compensation the employee should be awarded.
The tribunal response form can be found here
http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/HMCTS/GetForm.do?court_forms_id=3133
For further information please contact our legal team on 01625 56 9545
