How to lose a good case
It’s really very easy: all you have to do is tell lies when you’re giving your evidence.
Treat cross-examination as a contest with your employer’s lawyer. Try to work out where each question is going before you answer it. Spin your answers to make you look as good and your employer as bad as possible. Don’t admit to having done anything even slightly wrong, however obvious it is that you did. If you’re faced with a contradiction between your witness statement and your oral evidence, or between your evidence and one of the documents, make something up on the spur of the moment to deal with it. If all else fails, fall back on woffling or saying ‘It’s a long time ago now, I don’t remember.’
Of course, if you’d rather win, you could just tell the truth on everything. You’ll end up making various admissions you’d have preferred not to – no case is 100% perfect, and the job of your employer’s lawyer is to find the weakest points of your case and exploit them – but admitting to those things candidly will improve your standing with the tribunal, not damage it. If you try to defend every point, you’ll look shifty and dishonest, and the tribunal may end up doubting your word even where you are telling the truth.
Above all, bear in mind that cases are more often lost by the losing side than won by the winner. That is to say, most hearings tip in favour of the winning party while the other party is giving its evidence.
