ET approaching - Metadata advice needed

[kevsterman]

Good morning everyone.

 

I have a tribunal scheduled for the end of April to hear my unfair dismissal case. My ex-employer is saying that over the last couple of years we had several meetings discussing my poor performance which is untrue. When it came time for us to disclose our list of documents he applied for a 5 day extension which he received. I believe he wanted the extension so that he could fabricate the minutes of the meetings. I've heard about metadata and wonder if there is a way I can prove that all the minutes were produced at the same time. Any advice would be really appreciated.

 

Many thanks

[becky2585]

Yes, you can firstly write to him and request disclosure of the meta data. If he refuses, apply to the Tribunal for an order for specific disclosure of the meta data you require.

[kevsterman]

Thanks Becky, thats great I shall do that. I appreciate your help.

[steampowered]

I believe windows stores the date and time when each document was created. I believe it is possible easy to fake this by changing the date and time of your computer, but query whether the employer would have the expertise to do this. I am not sure how you would actually get your hands on the metadata and I am not a techie, but perhaps you could ask for electronic copies of the documents by email (you should be able to check the metadata from there). This would work better than asking the employer to simply confirm what the metadata says or provide screenshots showing the metadata (which would make it obvious what you are looking for and prompt him to try to fake the time).

[Atlas01]

I personally would be asking for them electronically and nothing else, if they are word they will show creation date and also last edit date and i wouldn't want to tip them off as steam has told you what they could then easily do

 

there is also the "are they signed" emailed at the time if not which is usual practice

 

Is there potential that they can/cannot verify diary meetings to back up you attended, even then if they are arguing dismissal around perfomance i'd expect a formal letter trail with warnings in addition to meeting minutes

[kevsterman]

As far as I know there are only the minutes of the meetings which I should receive in the post tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what they say considering none of the meetings took place. There is certainly no formal letter trail which you would sensibly expect.