Practice Direction issued by the Senior President of Tribunals: Employment Appeal Tribunal

Employment Appeal TribunalPractice Direction

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1. This Practice Direction sets out the arrangements for the neutral citation of judgments of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) from 1 January 2022. It follows the practice of other jurisdictions including that of the Upper Tribunal.
2. In the EAT, a unique number will be issued by the EAT Office for all judgments in respect of full hearings. Requests for a number in respect of other judgments, decisions or orders of the EAT should be made to the President of the EAT.
3. EAT judgments will be numbered in the following way: [202n] EAT 1. [202n] represents the relevant year.
4. There will be consecutive numbering of judgments so that the first three judgments delivered by the EAT following this Practice Direction would be numbered [2022] EAT 1, [2022] EAT 2, [2022] EAT 3 (and so on), and would commence from [2023] EAT 1 in 2023 and in each subsequent year.
5. Under these arrangements, paragraph 77 in Jones v Smith Ltd, the tenth numbered judgment of the year in the EAT, would be cited: Jones v Smith Ltd [202n] EAT 10 at [77]
6. The neutral citation number will be the official number attributed to the judgment by the EAT and must always be used on at least one occasion when the judgment is cited in a later decision or judgment. Once the judgment is reported, the neutral citation will generally appear in front of any citation from the law report series.
7. This Practice Direction is made by the Senior President of Tribunals, with the agreement of the Lord Chancellor, pursuant to section 29A of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996.

Sir Keith Lindblom
Senior President of Tribunals