Disability discrimination?

[badback2]

Glad to hear that hugely. Again, be wary of solicitors who do legal aid work. In my experience they will abandon you when their government funded allowance of money runs out, which typically is insufficient to even prepare a half decent ET1, never mind represent you thereafter.

 

The EHRC represent some disabled folk, but its rare. They are good ; very good.

 

Becky - glad to hear you prefer claimant work. You are an exception and i applaud you. Shame i do not know where you practice as i currently have 40 claimants with counsel on board for a case with with 75% prospects of success. Most law firms aren't interested as it's a complex case and it means they will have to work to earn some fees. Pl do not patronise me by inferring that i do not know that LEI cover now allows you to choose your solicitor rather than a panel solicitor. OP look at this link below , it's a well known case

 

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/law-history-and-diversity/5038668.article

 

Anyhow, if you get frustrated by the legal advice you receive (sadly a distinct likelihood) then repost and keep us updated.

 

Apologies if I appear cynical of employment solicitors. It's based on my own terrible experiences and those of many others. I now advice folk to by pass solicitors all together and go to barristers direct via direct access. Generally far better and more cost effective solution. I compare solicitors to GP's. Nice, but not specialists. Barristers are more like consultant surgeons .. i.e focus on the specific problem and they are usually far better academically qualified .

[hugelyrippedoff]

Thanks for the tip off Badback2, I didnt know that about legal aid.

Am thinking of going with the insurance solicitor for now as she seems ok and I might as well get some free help. The union have completely ditched me now just for daring to suggest I have a case and I have spoken to EHRC this afternoon for some advice.

I am taking all advice and adding it with my own findings, also a friend of my son is in his last student year specialising in employment law so he is chipping in too. Hoping to come up with some kind of reasonable case between it all, but hoping that the old saying 'too many cooks spoils the broth' doesnt apply here and gets the case confused.

Am I reading your post correctly, as my insurance specifically states that I cannot choose my own solicitor for an employment tribunal or some other things such as small claims court etc. but the link seems to say that I can, (unless in my stressed frame of mind I am misunderstanding things) If this is the case, how would I go about it? Have put a claim in now and am awaiting their decision and assessment.

thanks again for the helpful links and info.

[badback2]

Hugely - the case is a recent European judgement. You are allowed to choose your own solicitor. Better still you should ( I think) be able to choose your own barrister ( often called "counsel") . Again , all things being equal, I would always choose an employment barrister over an employment solicitor.

 

Who is your actual Legal Expenses Insurance (LEI) provider ? Is it DAS ? I have had dealings with most of them. They pay solicitors approx £100 per hr whilst solicitors want to be paid extortionate fee rates such as £175 - £250 per hr plus VAT. Many solicitors eventually get de-motivated if they have to work for a pitifully low rate of only £100 per hour ... poor them lol . An LEI provider's valuation of a solicitor's worth is one area re which I agree with their approach to business ! However, many LEI providers play tricks and invariably punish law firms, and often the insured can suffer as a result. Most LEI provider's will at the end of the day not even pay your solicitor's fees in full as they argue re the # of hours it takes a solicitor to represent the insured party. To some extent I agree with the punitive manner in which LEI's treat solicitors. However, they are hard on non panel solicitors because they want you to use their panel solicitors who are under their control and are in effect forced to work for £70 per hr based on a virtually guaranteed volume of case work.

 

One possible problem for you hugely may be that with LEI you end up getting what you pay for. LEI typically costs less than £40 per annum. In return you can get up to £50K cover for legal fees. It sounds good to be true. It usually is. In my experience LEI providers will act in the background to apply pressure to have a case settle once say £3-4K of legal fees have been incurred. That may get you nowhere with a disability discrimination claim and does not necessarily serve your best interests. Your employer may well realise that your claim (if any) is LEI funded and may then try and protract the case in the hope that you or your funder caves in. Solicitors should act in a clients best interests , but in my experience they put their own interests first and many allow themselves to be brow beaten by LEI providers.

 

Apologies if all this sounds overly negative. I try to help many people with disability issues and I hate to see them be let down. A tribunal claim can be very stressful and can take many months, if not years, to be resolved, in particular when disability discm'n issues arise. I feel you need to know the possible downside before you commit and make sure you have support workers in place to help you cope.

 

Final suggestion. Before allowing a solicitor to issue a claim, if you have the time to do so before 3 month time limit expires, try ACAS pre-claim conciliation service. It's free and your employer may be willing to compromise because it could easily cost them £3K-£7K to defend your claim - better that you have that money ! ..and better still you can get a positive written reference to pass onto future employers. Don't tell ACAS you have a solicitor on board (if you have).

 

Anyhow, hope this helps !

[ericsbrother]

When you say the union, do you men your branch, local rep, regional offer or national officer? Try rining head office and ask for contact with a full time official. You can then get the union solicitors involved and they are good and wont cost you a bean.

to be clear onthis point, your employer was aware of your disability before and you asked for reasonable adjustments to be made? If so, claiming capability when sacking someone is a route to disaster for an employer as they will have automatically treated them differently because of the disability.

A county court claim is easier to win than an ET for many equality matters but you may want to consider both for now.

[hugelyrippedoff]

When you say the union, do you men your branch, local rep, regional offer or national officer? Try rining head office and ask for contact with a full time official. You can then get the union solicitors involved and they are good and wont cost you a bean.

to be clear onthis point, your employer was aware of your disability before and you asked for reasonable adjustments to be made? If so, claiming capability when sacking someone is a route to disaster for an employer as they will have automatically treated them differently because of the disability.

A county court claim is easier to win than an ET for many equality matters but you may want to consider both for now.

 

Thanks for this info, I have never heard of a county court claimI thought the only option was ET so I will certainly look into that, thanks again. The employer was notified by oc health that I was covered by the equality act at the same time that the reasonable adjustments were asked for. They definitely knew I had the condition before this point and have even made derogatory comments about it, but I suppose they could argue that they didnt know that I was covered by the equality act because of the condition as I have never claimed to be disabled or asked for anything before.

 

Bad back2, thanks again for your tip off, I cannot believe that they can do this! The solicitor that I spoke to through legal aid helpline is actually a legal 500 solicitor and said that if I can get the insurance to accept the claim she would represent me through that. I see what you mean now, does this seem to be the norm rather than the exception?

[hugelyrippedoff]

Could you guys help me out, what can I do to prove that a document that has my signature on is a complete forgery?

[badback2]

Re forgery - what has this got to do with your post !? It's easy to resolve, may need to start a new thread as you may confuse the issue.

 

Re your post feedback . A) Civil court is risky. At best you'll have a 50/50 chance of succeeding with a DD claim. if you lose in county court you may well face a massive legal bill from ur employer. Safer to lodge claim in ET as costs are in 99% of cases borne by each party. B) Unscrupulous solicitors and LEI providers are the norm. For proof ask the law society why in a recent poll only 40% of their regulated members were trusted by the public.

[hugelyrippedoff]

Sorry you are right, it is because someone has forged my signature on a very damning work document and I have a meeting tomorrow.

[badback2]

Aah ok ... well the simple answer is yes, Forgery is a criminal offence and if proven an employee may well risk summary dismissal for gross misconduct.

[phaitun]

Aah ok ... well the simple answer is yes, Forgery is a criminal offence and if proven an employee may well risk summary dismissal for gross misconduct.

 

If the forged document has a significant impact on the case and you know it is forged and who forged it, and upon whose instruction then it is a simple remedy.

Perverting the course of justice, if you have
a. Started any legal proceedings
b. Put your employer on notice that you are considering legal proceedings.

if you believe the document was forged to frustrate, alter or otherwise effect the legal process then the criminal route is the best option.

it is a simple case and relatively easy for the police to obtain handwriting samples, a handwriting expert would be provided with the samples and comparisons made,its a relatively simple but effective means to determine forgery.
Even the most experienced forgers get caught like this.