Miss H Patel v Lloyds Bank plc — 2023

The hearing was a public preliminary hearing to decide whether the unfair dismissal claim should be struck out as out of time. The claimant had engaged in ACAS Early Conciliation, submitted an online ET1 before the deadline, and omitted her full address because of concerns about postal correspondence in shared accommodation and because of information she said appeared on the online form. The tribunal accepted her oral evidence as clear and consistent, while noting there was no evidence before it about the exact online form in use in September 2022.

After the ET1 was submitted, tribunal administrative correspondence told the claimant email communication was possible and the claim was accepted and served. The respondent submitted a substantive response and did not raise concern about the missing address. The tribunal found there was nothing to alert the claimant to a problem until 25 October 2022, after which she provided her full address on 28 October 2022.

Applying the reasonably practicable test and having regard to Adams v British Telecommunications plc, the tribunal concluded that the claimant was not aware of the potential adverse consequences of not including her address and would likely have provided it before the deadline if the earlier correspondence had been clearer. It held that the claim was not reasonably practicable to present within time and that rectification three days after the claimant became aware of the issue was within a further reasonable period, so the unfair dismissal claim would continue.