by Naomi Cunningham & Michael Reed
A lot of people bring friends and family to the tribunal to support them.
This is an excellent idea. Tribunals are stressful, difficult and not the the sort of thing you should do alone unless you have to. Just knowing that there is someone there to give some emotional support can make things much easier.
One of the problems you can face early in your career is that tribunals don’t take account of your inexperience. It can feel as if you’re expected to reach the standard expected of an experienced lawyer from the first moment you start representing clients.
To some extent this is just not a problem that should be solved. Tribunals expect a certain basic standard of all representatives. Inexperienced shouldn’t mean incompetent.
But beginners are inevitably less skilled than experienced people. It is not unreasonably to expect the tribunal to cut you a little slack in your first few appearances.
Generally, tribunals notice when you are a beginner. But if they don’t, should you tell them?
When you turn up to a tribunal hearing you should bring with you all the relevant papers.
This sounds obvious, but in practice it is easy to make mistakes.
When considering a case a tribunal will inevitably take some account of the way people act during the litigation. This is one reason that it’s best to behave in a sensible and reasonable manner.
It is particularly important not act in a way that directly undermines your case. If, for example, the respondent says that you were dismissed for acting in an aggressive and anger manner, try not to blow up during cross-examination. And, if you were dismissed for persistent lateness (which you deny), it is vital that you not turn up half an hour after the hearing was supposed to start.
If you are representing yourself, and one of the other claimants is represented by lawyers, don’t let the lawyers hog the claimants’ table.
You will often see people in tribunals responding to what a witness or litigant is saying.
They may raise their eyebrows; roll their eyes; suck their teeth; make the sound ‘tsk’; sigh deeply, grimace horribly or some combination of these and other things.
Courtroom dramas are filled with beautiful people who, at the slightest provocation, leap to their feet to shout “I object”.
Of course, real life in the employment tribunals is not like this. But a lot of litigation is similar. One side will want to do something, or do it in a particular way, while the other side tries to stop them.
A lot of these arguments are important. Many are not. But people (and lawyers are some of the worse) often fall into the trap of objecting to everything the other side tries to do.
This is foolish for several reasons.
