About

This blog supports and updates the book Employment Tribunal Claims: tactics & precedents (3rd ed. LAG 2009) by Naomi Cunningham and Michael Reed.

The Book

The book began as a simple folder of precedents in the FRU office. Naomi realised that that, if trainee lawyers found a collection of example documents useful and comforting, there might be a wider audience. She decided turn the precedents folder into a book, with some footnotes explaining what the precedents were trying to achieve. As she wrote, she found that the footnotes quickly outgrew the examples.

The book therefore grew into its current form as a claimant’s guide to the sometimes arcane process of the employment tribunals. Aimed at litigants in person and lay advisers, as well as lawyers, it aims to explain the tribunal process and advise on the tactics necessary to succeed. The first edition was published by the Legal Action Group in 2006

Michael Reed joined as a co-author for the 2nd and 3rd edition.

The Authors

Naomi Cunningham was called to the Bar in 1994 and spent some years as an employment specialist in various London law centres before joining the Free Representation Unit after a period as its employment caseworker.

Naomi now practises as a member of the employment team at Outer Temple Chambers, representing a broad mix of employees and large and small employers. She is a contributing editor to Sweet & Maxwell’s Employment Court Practice and has contributed to the Industrial Law Journal, the Employment Lawyers’ Association Briefing, the Discrimination Law Association Briefing and Adviser. She is listed in Chambers UK as a leading employment law junior with a “great depth of intellect”.

As the Free Representation Unit’s Legal Officer (employment), Michael Reed oversees the conduct by volunteers of approximately 600 employment cases every year, and as well as running his own caseload. He appears regularly in the Employment Tribunals and the EAT.

Michael is a Director of the Discrimination Law Association and a co-opted member of the Committee of the Employment Law Bar Association. He is a member of the Employment Tribunal National User Group and the Employment Appeal Tribunal User Group. He is also on the Tribunal Procedure Committee, charged with overseeing the creation of rules for the combined tribunal system.

The Publisher

Legal Action Group is an educational charity that aims to provide lawyers and non-lawyers with legal information that will help them support disadvantaged groups. It publishes books and provides training in many legal fields, including employment, housing, family and crime.

The Blog

The blog is updated by both authors with updates to the book, as case-law develops and legislation changes. It also includes general advice, which expands on the book. Much of the material appearing on this blog is drawn from the day-to-day queries raised, and difficulties experienced, by volunteers at the Free Representation Unit.

Please note that the authors cannot enter into individual correspondence with users of this blog or give legal advice in specific cases, but we welcome questions and comments of general interest. If you need legal advice or representation in your own case, please see the Getting Advice page on this site.

Views expressed are ours alone and shouldn’t be taken to be the views of either Outer Temple Chambers or the Free Representation Unit.

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