Supreme Court abolishes Employment Tribunal Fees

As you may have seen on the news last week, the Supreme Court has ruled employment tribunal fees unlawful, and has abolished them. In fact those who have paid fees will get them refunded. Claimants with genuine claims might even be allowed to make a claim “out of time” if they can show the fees were the reason they did not claim. 

Since the fees regime was instigated, claims went down by 70%, so in all likelihood this now means that because there will be no financial barriers to those seeking redress in employment tribunals, the instance of both strong and weaker claims, even pure "fishing expeditions" is highly likely to increase.

This means that it’s more important than ever to make sure that the proper processes are followed, not only to avoid actual claims, but also to avoid being tied up in the administrative burden that even a threatened claim can produce. 

As always, it's invariably cheaper to contact me and ask me whether it's okay for you to do something, rather than contact me and ask me whether it was okay to do the thing that you just did. 

I hope you are enjoying the summer, weather permitting!