In person For the v Mr D Bickford, Solicitor — 2018

Mr Ukwu brought claims of unfair dismissal, disability discrimination, victimisation and whistleblowing detriments. The tribunal had previously made a case management order on 28 March 2018 requiring further and better particulars because the claim form was too sparse for the eight respondents to answer fully. After the claimant did not substantially comply, the tribunal warned him on 18 September 2018 that an Unless Order might follow. An Unless Order was then made on 15 November 2018 and sent on 21 November 2018, stating that the claim would be dismissed if no response was received within seven days. No compliant response was received, so the claims stood dismissed and struck out. The claimant later applied to set aside the dismissal, saying that he had not seen the order because of his recovery from shoulder surgery.

At the hearing on 8 October 2019, Employment Judge Freer refused to restore the proceedings under Rule 38(2). The tribunal accepted that the claimant had undergone right shoulder surgery on 6 November 2018, but found there was no medical evidence that he was unable to open post, access email, or seek assistance with those simple tasks. It also found that he had been able to communicate by email with the respondents' solicitors around the relevant period, and that his evidence that he could not monitor tribunal communications was not supported. The judge concluded that the claimant had been warned in advance, that the fault for the default lay with him, and that restoring the case would prejudice the respondents and undermine finality, so it was not in the interests of justice to set aside the strike-out.