We successfully defended a claim for unfair dismissal, various types of disability discrimination and failure to respond to a flexible working request. The claimant sought compensation over £500,000.
We dealt with complicating factors such as supporting and managing a large number of witnesses including senior management, the councillor who chaired the internal member appeal hearing, ex-employees, and a reluctant witness whom we needed to call under a witness order. The claimant’s requests for specific disclosure and subject access requests together with the normal disclosure process resulted in thousands of pages of documents to review and consider.
The final hearing was listed for 15 days (although with good management we managed to complete it in 13 days) and was conducted remotely by video. All claims were dismissed by the tribunal and the local authority was pleased to be able to demonstrate internally that they were willing and able to defend against claims of this nature where necessary.
