Earlier this week the Government published the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013, which include the new Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure. These come into force on July 29 2013.
Following his review of the existing rules, the former President of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, Mr Justice Underhill, recommended the creation of a new set of rules from scratch.
Amongst other things, the new rules state that an employment tribunal must, where appropriate, encourage parties to use mediation, or other ways of resolving their disputes by agreement before committing to legal proceedings
There will also be guidance published on “matters of practice” and “how the powers conferred by the rules may be exercised” to help address inconsistencies in case management and decision-making between different tribunals.
A tribunal must reject a claim if it is not submitted together with a tribunal fee or application for remission, although fees will not be payable on claims submitted or notices of appeal received before the Order comes into force.
Various new rules relate to cutting down on time. For example, an employment judge must consider the documents relating to each case to determine whether there is a case to answer or whether the response to a claim has a reasonable prospect of success.
If there is little chance of that, the judge may require a party to pay a deposit of up to £1,000 as a condition of continuing with the case The consequences of non-payment of the fee by the specified date can include dismissal of a claim without further notice. There may also be limits on the time that a party may take to present a case and where that limit is breached, the case may not continue.
In another bid to shorten proceedings, case management discussions and pre-hearing reviews will be combined into a single preliminary hearing during which a tribunal may, among other things, consider the claim with the parties and make a case management order, determine any preliminary issue and make a deposit order.
The relevant provisions in the Regulations and the rules come into force on 29 July 2013, as does the new fee structure. However, fees will not be payable on claims submitted, or notices of appeal received, before the Order comes into force.