Monday 29 July 2013

Update on Tribunal Fees

A brief update on today's events involving tribunal fees.

1.   Fees (apparently) came into force for claims issued on or after today.  I say 'apparently' because nobody in the employment law community has yet seen the 'made' version of theEmployment Tribunals and Employment Appeal Tribunal Fees Order 2013.  I will distribute the link to the 'made' version as soon as it is available.

2.  On Friday afternoon, I sent out a bulletin announcing the publication of the Presidential Practice Direction on Issuing Claims for England and Wales and, separately (to people in Scotland only), one with the link to the equivalent Practice Direction for Scotland.  For those who did not receive that second email but who deal with claims in Scotland, this paragraph duly distributes the link.

3.  Unison's judicial review of the fee regime had its oral permission application in the High Court this morning.  Permission has been granted to proceed with the judicial review application, and there is a full hearing listed for October.  Unison's application for an interim injunction was refused.

4.  The MoJ have confirmed that Equal Pay claims currently fall under fee category 'A', not 'B' (and say amending legislation is likely to be put through in the future)

5.  I understand from comments on twitter and various emails I have received that the 'new' ET3 form has not been working today and has been taken down by the Courts & Tribunals Service (I can't find the online version when looking now, but the paper version you can print off and post ishere).

6.  The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have told me that my bulletin last Friday (saying that the 'new' forms must be used or an ET1/ET3 will be rejected) is wrong because the 'old' forms have not yet been de-prescribed and thus are still valid (see BIS email).  Apologies for the error.

No comments: