Witnesses in the employment tribunal are usually asked to read their statements aloud. One of the small things you can do to help the hearing run smoothly is to let your witnesses know in advance how you’re going to handle references to documents in the statement.
If both parties are going to give the tribunal a skeleton argument or written submissions, the usual thing is to exchange them simultaneously. The idea is that neither side gets to write their document having the unfair advantage of a preview of their opponent’s.
Someone recently found this blog by the search ‘What to do when the evidence against you is overwhelming.’ The best answer to this is ‘give up.’ The reason that’s not as obvious as it sounds is that sometimes the evidence against you is overwhelming even though you are in the right.
Putting page numbers in a bundle is a dull job – and guess what? Nobody has to do it.
Chronological order – that is to say, date order – is the only way to arrange the papers in a hearing bundle. Anything else will be confusing at best, enraging at worst.
If you’ve bought the book to help you run your own case, you probably won’t need it again once the case is finished and the…
It’s a common mistake to think that what witnesses say doesn’t count as evidence: as in “It’s my word against his, but there’s no evidence.” If he says you did and you say you didn’t, that’s evidence on both sides. It’s the tribunal’s job to listen to his evidence, and yours, and decide who to believe.
It is a good general rule (probably in life, but certainly in litigation) to make your best points and then stop. It will be very rare indeed that there are more than half a dozen or so really good points in any case.
You will get the best value out of your adviser or representative – whether you’re paying for their help or getting it for free – if you do what you can to make their job easier.
If you lose your job or get into a dispute with your employer, checking the small print of your household or car insurance may not be among the first things you think of doing – but it probably should be.