One person’s word against another

Employment cases sometimes come down to one person saying one thing and another saying something quite different.

This sometimes seems to cause people excessive concern. You will occasionally see advice that broadly says “Since it is just your word against your employer’s, you do not have a case”.

This is too pessimistic. After all, from your employer’s point of view it is just their word against yours. The tribunal is used to hearing cases where there is little to go on aside from their judgement of the witnesses’ honesty.

It is, however, very difficult to predict how such cases will go in tribunal. What will decide the outcome is the impression witnesses make on the tribunal. That is hard to know in advance.

This is true even if you are the witness and know you are telling the truth. The tribunal does not know you and will have only a few hours to form a view of your character, and that of the respondent’s witnesses. When there is little surrounding evidence to guide them, they are trying to do something very difficult, and they are not always successful.

This is hard. There is little more frustrating than being disbelieved when you know you are telling the truth. Despite this, when you are making practical decisions, such as whether to bring a case or to accept a settlement offer, you need to think about how your case will look to the tribunal. When it just your word against somebody else’s, the answer to that question is that you just don’t know. Your decisions should reflect that.