Last week my colleague, Helen Broughton, discussed amongst other things her dreams and the challenges facing a Managing Partner. Whilst Helen is away fulfilling her dreams, I have been given the opportunity to contribute towards her Blog.
My name is Charles Millett and I am an Associate Solicitor at Morecrofts, specialising in employment law. In last week’s Blog, Helen described employment law as being one of several “nightmares”. The challenge for employment lawyers such as myself is to assist businesses in overcoming these nightmares by giving them advice on how to act fairly and in line with relevant procedures.
At Morecrofts, we act for employers and employees (but not in the same cases!). One of the big advantages of acting for businesses and individuals is that you can often second guess what steps your opponent will take.
Contrary to what many people might think, a considerable proportion of employment law does not involve appearing before the Employment Tribunal. Much of the work consists of drafting and reviewing contracts and procedures for employers, as well as advising employees on compromise agreements. A compromise agreement is a document that an employee may be given by their employer, normally when their employment is being brought to an end. The employee then visits an independent solicitor in order to obtain advice on the compromise agreement. It is common practice for the employer to pay the solicitor’s reasonable costs in giving this advice.
I have just been reading about a case that shows just how strictly deadlines are imposed in the Employment Tribunals. Unlike in the civil courts, the deadline for submitting a claim to the Employment Tribunal falls at midnight on the last day for presentation of that claim.
In the case of Besley -v- National Grid, the employee tried to submit his claim electronically shortly before midnight. I should add that it is perfectly permissible to present a claim to the Employment Tribunal online. However, the claimant mistyped the email address to which he was submitting the claim and as such, it was undelivered.
After sending a further message as a test shortly before midnight, the employee then submitted his claim 88 seconds after midnight. The Tribunal rejected the claim as being out of time. The case was eventually taken to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, which agreed that it was out of time, despite the unfortunate set of circumstances. If nothing else, this serves as a harsh lesson for all of us not to leave the submission of a claim (or a response for that matter) until the last few minutes!
I have deliberately tried not to be controversial in my first ever Blog. I have been promised the opportunity to contribute a further Blog next week and do not want to lose this privilege at such an early stage.