Martin Palmer successfully represented various respondents in the Employment Appeal Tribunal (Mr. Justice Underhill presiding) resisting a claimant’s appeal against an order of the Employment Tribunal that she pay one third of the respondents’ costs incurred in defending multiple unsuccessful claims brought by her.
The Employment Tribunal had an award of costs to be assessed based upon an equivalent of one third of the legal costs incurred by the respondents on the grounds that the claimant’s complaints of race and disability discrimination as well as whistleblowing allegations had been misconceived from the outset.
The EAT held that it was neither wrong in principle to make a substantial award of costs where no deposit order had been made, nor where the claimant’s current financial means meant that she might not be able to afford to pay the full award. The Judgment is a helpful review of the authorities applicable to costs’ awards in the Employment Tribunal. In particular, it demonstrates a Tribunal’s approach to the issue of costs in relation to unmeritorious discrimination complaints.
