Pre-reading

We have both previously posted about Mehta v Child Support Agency, in which the EAT doubted the usefulness of having witnesses read their statements aloud: see Reading statement aloud and Follow up on witness statements.

Another consequence of the shift in practice this has caused is that tribunals are more likely to want to pre-read not only the witness statements, but also the key documents they refer to. This means it’s a good idea to have formed a view before the hearing starts which documents the tribunal is going to need to read in full, and roughly how long it’s going to take them. Agree a pre-reading list with the other side if possible.

How do you decide which documents to put on your list? This isn’t a hugely important decision, so don’t agonise over it – but sensible decisions will help the hearing go more smoothly, so a few rules of thumb may be helpful.

Include any substantial document that forms a crucial part of the story: e.g. in a dismissal case, notes of the investigation meeting, the letter inviting you to a disciplinary hearing, notes of the disciplinary hearing, the dismissal letter, your appeal, notes of the appeal hearing, the appeal outcome letter

But don’t make them read lengthy documents just for ‘completeness’ – so e.g. if there are pages and pages of notes of the investigation meeting and the disciplinary hearing, covering very similar ground, you may not need to make the tribunal pre-read both.

Just because you haven’t put a document on the pre-reading list, it doesn’t mean you can’t take a witness to it in cross examination.

Don’t include documents that won’t make any sense to the tribunal until a witness has explained how it works and what it means.

Don’t bother with very short documents whose whole significance the tribunal can be expected to get at a glance.

How long will pre-reading take?

It depends, of course. How many pages there are to read. Whether they are single or double spaced. Whether they are typed or handwritten; and if handwritten – whether by a primary school teacher or a doctor. How quickly the slowest member of the tribunal reads. Whether they are clear and succinct, or waffly and verbose.

For now, try 50 pages an hour as a rough rule of thumb. And please make a note in your next hearing of how many pages you ask the tribunal to read, and how long it takes them – and then comment on this post, so that we can collect some data and refine this estimate.

Published by Naomi

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