Litigation: Five reasons why your employment tribunal spend might increase next year

A cluster of recent cases and developments is likely to mean rising costs for employers faced with a tribunal claim, warn Phil Allen and Louise Singh ‘Employers are starting to see a renewed flow of the types of claim that had largely fallen away under the fee regime.’ After a few years in the wilderness, …
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Injury To Feelings: Court of Appeal rules that employment tribunals should increase discrimination awards

Phil Allen looks at a recent Court of Appeal decision and why it means there will be increases to discrimination awards in employment tribunals ‘While the largest component of most discrimination awards will remain the (uncapped) lost earnings, the increase in injury to feelings figures will mean that the employer’s potential exposure and the cost …
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QOCS: Discrimination claims in the civil courts

Huw Davies considers whether an injury to feeling is sufficient to trigger QOCS protection ‘That there is a distinction in kind between a personal injury and an injury to feelings is evidenced by the fact that it is clearly recognised that claims for both types of injury can be brought in the same action.’ While …
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Legal News: Employment update

Bradley Houlston rounds up recent case law and developments affecting employers and their advisers ‘Employers should be mindful that refusing access to relevant documents, even in response to a subject access request, could affect the fairness of a dismissal.’ Refusal to respond to a SAR contributed to unfair dismissal In McWilliams v Citibank NA [2016], …
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Infant Approvals: Young at court

Clive Thomas explains how success fees and ATE premiums are calculated ‘CPR 21.12 (7) provides that the amount deducted for the success fee and the ATE premium shall not exceed 25% of the agreed damages for PSLA and past pecuniary loss net of any CRU deductions. This has led to a situation where the courts …
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Legal News: Employment update

Jo Broadbent rounds up recent case law and developments affecting employers and their advisers ‘The future of the “dual discrimination” provisions in the Equality Act 2010 that have not been brought into force apparently remains under consideration.’ Bans on religious symbols in the workplace – direct or indirect discrimination? Bougnaoui v Micropole SA [2016] concerns …
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Compensation: Civil actions against the police – what every lawyer must know

Kevin Donoghue explains the basis on which claims against the police are made and provides guidance for lawyers dealing with these cases using a practical example of one of his cases ‘False imprisonment is defined in Clerk & Lindsell on Torts as the “complete deprivation of liberty for any time, however short, without lawful cause”. …
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Procedural Reform: Insurers cry Woolf?

Andrew Morgan , who specialises in asbestos claims, looks at the hidden cost of the recent reforms ‘So the outcome of the Mesothelioma Bill is not yet assured, but how wonderful that insurers will no longer have to pay success fees in successful claims. Perhaps.’The insurance industry can be forgiven for looking like the fat …
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Damages: Second guessing

Tracy Head reports on a revision of Simmons v Castle The 10% increase in general damages is part of the overall package of reforms to incentivise reasonable litigation behaviour and control litigation costs. It is one of the measures designed to assist claimants who will have to pay success fees. The most senior judges of …
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Taxing Times: A year in the life

Janet Sayers recaps the main challenges to face clinical negligence lawyers this year It remains to be seen how the details of the Assisted Dying Bill will develop, particularly in light of the High Court’s decision in the Nicklinson case not to depart from the established principle that assisted death is murder.This last year has …
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