Employment Tribunal Claim - Respondent Not Replied. Advice Please!

[PinkGlitterGirl]

My partner was dismissed from his job on 1st June 2007. He appealed, and was unsuccessful. On 17th August he made a claim with the Employment Tribunals for unfair dismissal. The company (major retailer) have until 12pm Monday 17th September to reply. I suspect that they are simply not going to submit a response. Reading the information supplied from them, if they dont reply by this date, then a judgement may be issued. However, there is no further explaination of this.
What does this mean?
Who will make the judgement?
How long will this take?
What will my partner need to do?
Will my partner still be able to claim for compensation (lost wages, etc etc) as he is seeking a £6000 sum.
What if he disagrees with this judgement?
What if the company disagree with the judgement?
What reasons can the company give for not responding in the specified time that would be accepted by the Employment Tribunal?
Is it clear cut, that no response means judgement made...

HELP!! Im stressing out with worry over this, as we have been in severe financial difficulty since June, and really need this sorting out ASAP.

[GlasweJen]

I'm new to this so I'm not sure what will happen. I can tell you that they can contest a default judgement but they had better have good reason to do so. Hold on in there, it's not unknown for these things to go unacknowledged until the very last minute probably to intimidate you.

[OrangePrimate]

Dont panic!
When you submit a claim to an Employment Tribunal, they have to notify the other party that a complaint has been lodged against them and allow 30 days for them to respond, not only to the Tribunal, but also to acas who also contact them.
This is done to see if the other party are prepared to accept your claim and 'settle' or are interested in the 'consiliation process' that would involve acas (any agreement or decision cannot be appealed against if that route is taken)

Once the 30 days is up then the Employment Tribunal will set a date for a hearing. If the other party does not respond, enter in a defence or turn up, a decision can be made in their absence.

If the decision goes against you, you do have the right to appeal, but it does have to be on points of employemnt legislation, law or DDA or something.

In some very rare cases an Employment Tribunal have made judgements without anyone having to attend, but only if very cut and dried and complaints are admitted to by the Employers, but like i said, very rarely!!!

Dont stress and panic too much, just post when you get your next update from the ET and we can go from there.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

There are various rules depending on each case but, generally, if the Respondent does not reply within 28 days then a Default Judgement can be issued against the Respondent.

This can be done with or without a hearing but the Respondent wouldn't be allowed to attend the hearing to defend it unless they apply for a review.

The Respondent can apply for a review of the Default within 14 days of the issue of it and giving their reasons why they didn't respond earlier.

The Tribunal may determine liability in Default or liability and remedy also.

As I say this is in general but time limits, reviews etc can change case to case. Get in touch with ACAS.

Good luck.

[Ell-enn]

WAY is correct in that you should contact ACAS - they will be able to advise you. It's unusual for an employer not to respond though - unless of course they know they haven't got a case - they may try to settle outside of the ET. Is your husband a member of any trade union? he may be able to get support that way. Is he bringing this claim on his own or are you having help from an employment lawyer? you can usually find a law firm locally who give free consultations on specific days of the week. Or if you have a local law school (university?) they may have students who will assist you in return for the experience.

Post when you have more details.

Hope this is helpful

[Ell-enn]

...and also.... make sure you keep all your documentary evidence, letters, witness statements etc relating to this claim up to date and in order in a file. More tribunals are lost because of poor preparation and insufficient documents (on both sides)... the most common failure on the part of an employer is inconsistency - have they dismissed anyone else for the same reason?

If you can give me a few more details about the dismissal I can perhaps help more