Miss J Riley v Jet2.com Limited — 2021

The claimant brought claims of unfair dismissal and disability discrimination after her dismissal on 16 September 2020. She withdrew those claims by an email sent on 16 February 2021, and the claims were dismissed by a judgment dated 12 March 2021 and sent to the parties on 15 March 2021. The respondent then applied for costs of £6,111.88, contending that the claims were brought or conducted unreasonably and had no reasonable prospects of success.

The tribunal held that no wasted costs order could be made because the claimant's father, who represented her, was not acting in pursuit of profit and was therefore not a representative within Rule 80. The tribunal found that the phone recording relied on by the respondent was admissible, but that the respondent had not provided key disciplinary documents, including the policies, dismissal letter, meeting notes, or the witness statement from the employee who took the call.

On the limited evidence before it, the tribunal found that the respondent had not proved on the balance of probability that the claimant was unable to attend work because of alcohol consumption outside its policies. It found that the claimant had not acted vexatiously, abusively, disruptively or otherwise unreasonably by bringing and continuing the claims, and that the claims did not have no reasonable prospect of success. The costs application therefore failed and was dismissed.