After the hearing

What you need to know following an Employment Tribunal hearing

At a final hearing (or a preliminary hearing to decide part of the claim) we aim to give oral judgments wherever possible, with oral reasons.  Written judgments are always issued.  If reasons were given orally too, the parties will not be sent written reasons unless a request is made at the hearing, or in writing within 14 days of the written judgment being sent out.

In some cases the decision is reserved and is provided in writing only. The written judgment is accompanied by written reasons.

Each judgment is accompanied by information about how to enforce payment of compensation, how to make a request for the judgment to be reconsidered and how to appeal judgments to the Employment Appeal Tribunal.  Information about time limits is provided too

For case management hearings the outcome will be a written case management order recording the orders made at the hearing.

Register of Judgments

Judgments and reasons are public documents.  Case management orders are not.

The Employment Tribunals are required by law to maintain a register of all judgments and written reasons. The register must be accessible to the public. It has recently been moved online, and contains all judgments and reasons since February 2017. The link to the online register can be found online. Earlier judgments are stored in a physical archive at the County Court building in Bury St Edmunds.

The Employment Tribunals have no power to refuse to place a judgment or reasons on the register, or to remove a judgment or reasons from the register once they have been placed there. If you consider that these documents should be anonymised in any way prior to publication, you will need to apply to the office handling your claim for an order to that effect under rule 50 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure. Such an application would need to be copied to all other parties for comment and it would be considered carefully by an Employment Judge (and, where appropriate, with non-legal members) before deciding whether and to what extent anonymity should be granted to a party or a witness.

Reconsideration

The Rules of Procedure make provision for a judgment to be reconsidered if it is in the interests of justice to do so.  It is not generally in the interests of justice for parties to be allowed to reopen cases with evidence or arguments that were raised (or should have been raised) at the hearing.

Upon reconsideration a judgment may be confirmed, varied or revoked.

An application for reconsideration should be made in writing within 14 days of the date on which the written Judgment is sent to the parties, or within 14 days of written reasons for the judgment being sent out if that is later.  It must be copied to the other party.

Applications with no reasonable prospect of success are rejected on paper.  Those with a reasonable prospect are generally determined at a reconsideration hearing. 

Pursuing an application for reconsideration does not affect the time limits for an appeal.

Case management orders are not subject to the reconsideration procedure, but parties can apply for them to be varied or revoked.

Appeals

Appeals are filed with the Employment Appeal Tribunal, not the Employment Tribunals.

You can find more information at these links: “The Judgment” and “How to Appeal” Form T440

Complaints

Complaints about the personal conduct of an Employment Judge or non-legal member can be sent to the President or to the Regional Employment Judge for the office where your case is being heard.

Details of how to complain, and examples of what you can and cannot complaint about, are set out on the website of the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office.

Enforcement

Details of how to enforce a judgment are available here:  “If You Win Your Case”