Happy Tuesday people, it is me Jahedur…..newest Precept recruit and in typical Precept style I have been thrown in the deep end…
So, what have I been up to recently? At Precept, we kicked off the festive celebrations early and enjoyed a fun day out with the team. What was so fun you ask? We enjoyed a session of… wreath making! Whilst we are not your stereotypical lawyers, we do conform by being competitive by nature (Ah-hem, Emma!) – even when it comes to activities done in the name of fun. As you can imagine, everybody had their creative hat on (including Robyn who apparently isn’t very creative yet still came out with a beautiful wreath).
I quickly realised that my wreath making skills were lacking so in a desperate attempt to stand out from the rest, I decided to take an abstract approach and by this, I mean refusing to follow a pattern and ensuring that my wreath was so unorthodox that it actually looked good. Did I manage to achieve that goal? I’ll let you be the judge of that… but I cannot show the picture just yet because we will be having our annual festive photo comp on LinkedIn and instead of trees this year, we are doing the wreaths we made – bonus points for anyone who can spot mine!!!
But anyway, on with the Blog!
This week’s blog will be slightly different from the usual but fear not, you will get your legal fix (of sorts). As you loyal readers will be aware, I recently joined Precept as a fresh-faced employment solicitor. In my time here so far, I have picked up a wealth of knowledge, particularly in relation to litigation because claims are booming right now! Luckily for all of you, I will be using this blog to bless you with my top three litigation tips learned from actual experience recently, in case you find yourself defending a claim.
- Seek legal help where needed
It is not uncommon for employees to go head-to-head with their employer in an employment tribunal without having legal representation. In fact, more than half of Claimants in the employment tribunals are LIPs (litigants in person). On the flip side, 77% of employers have legal representation at hearings.
Naturally, you’d think this gives employers the upper hand, right? Wrong. Judges are incredibly lenient to claimant LIPs and our team has seen an increase in their benevolence over the years. Unfortunately, employers don’t always get this level of hand-holding, even when unrepresented, which is why it so important that employers seek legal representation the second a claim comes their way. Not just any legal advice, but someone who has experience in dealing with LIPs, because they require a whole different approach….we know this from personal experience!
It might be tempting to defend the early stages of the case yourself but we would not advise this as the early stages of a claim form the foundation for the entire defence. Your first defence (known as grounds of resistance) is the best and sometimes only opportunity to actually set out your legal case in writing – don’t under-estimate how important that is! You want to make sure that in response to the claim, you submit the best defence possible to then build on during the following stages. The last thing you want is to turn up to a final hearing and have an angry judge or a flimsy case because you missed a trick!
Now, this might sound like I am being cheeky and taking an opportunity to plug our services and I promise you that is not true (well, not 100%), but if you feel that you need legal support, litigation or non-litigation, the Precept team are always on hand to help. Particularly with litigation – the moment a claim drops, or sooner if you can….give us a call and we have got you!
- Get things started early
For anyone that has had an employment claim, you know how exhausting the deadlines can be. The defence, the preliminary hearings, the bundles, the disclosure, the witness statements, the schedule of costs… enough to make anyone go mad. On top of that, nobody wants the stress of having to deal with defending a claim (which for some reason, I decided to do as a career (it’s too late to turn back!))
The answer – a plan (yes, Emma and Robyn’s adamance for structure and organisation is already rubbing off on me!) The approach we take is to get onto deadlines as early as practicably possible and reaching out to clients to ensure they have the capacity to assist. Likewise, if you do find yourself defending a claim, it is important to set aside time in advance of each stage to ensure that you have enough time to prepare to defend the claim as well as possible.
Don’t under estimate how long each stage will take you – there is a reason we do this as a job!
- Be nice (to everyone)
My next tip is one that can be applied to defending a claim and also to life in general – be nice. It might be tempting to send a snide email to the claimant – maybe they are causing unnecessary delay, maybe they are dodging questions, maybe they just have no idea what they are doing, maybe they are being unreasonable purely to make your life hard… Regardless of how annoying the claimant is (and the stories I have heard are sometimes eye watering!), try your best to be nice.
Being nice and cooperating with the claimant (even if through gritted teeth) goes a long way in the eyes of the tribunal! In addition to being nice, go out of your way to make the process smoother and the judge’s life easier – you can do this by sending friendly reminders to the claimant to make sure they are aware of deadlines, presenting documents well to make sure they are easy to read, and trying to work things out with the claimant before seeking assistance from the tribunal. Judges will look upon you favourably and if you do then need to play hard ball, they will take you seriously because you have worked hard at the ground work!
In short – pick your battles, which is easier said than done in the heat of litigation, but this is where we can guide you. Tribunal strategy is something our litigation team is top class at! We are also well known (in favourable terms) by a number of Tribunals both local and further afield…our reputation precedes us!
All in all, litigation is very stressful for all parties involved, and even for solicitors and barristers when it gets really tricky. Litigation is daunting as it is and it is certainly 10 times harder without legal representation. For a smoother ride, use these top tips and if you want any advice on litigation, non-litigation or anything in-between, please give me or another member of the team a shout! You know I’m always happy to help.
Call us on 01332 866610 or email enquiries@precepthr.com
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