Mr C De Lisle (1) Ms C James (2) v PNG Export Services Ltd — 2025

The respondent applied during the final hearing to strike out the claimants' claims. One ground was that Mr De Lisle had referred to and appeared to mimic a witness's Russian accent, and another was that he had spoken to potential witnesses overnight after a direction not to discuss the case.

The tribunal refused the application. It found that the conduct relied on did not mean that a fair hearing was no longer possible, and that any issues could be addressed by adjustments, cross-examination and submissions rather than strike out.

The respondent also argued that the claims had no reasonable prospects of success because of Mr De Lisle's evidence about substitution and worker status. The tribunal held that substitution was not straightforward, that further evidence and submissions were needed, and that it could not say the claims had no reasonable prospect of success.