Employment Tribunal Rules

Mr Justice Underhill, who has been carrying out a fundamental review of employment tribunal rules and procedures, has reported today.

His report to the government is here and the new draft rules are here.

Here are a few of the key points:-

• Case Management Discussions and Pre-Hearing Reviews to be combined and relabelled 'Preliminary Hearings'
• cases to go through an initial paper sift, to consider directions and consider strike-out of aspects lacking a reasonable prospect of success
• simplifying rules on default judgments and expanding provisions for restricted reporting and anonymity orders
• giving an express power on judges to limit oral evidence and submissions, and impose a guillotine if directions are breached
• removing the £20,000 cap on the tribunal's ability to assess costs, avoiding the need to refer to the County Court for assessment.