In person For the v Mr E Duffield solicitor This has been a remote hearing which was not objected to by the parties. The form of remote hearing was video. A face to face hearing was not held because it was not practicable to do so. — 2020

This was an open preliminary hearing to decide whether the claimant's ET1 had been lodged in time. The tribunal recorded that the claimant started work on 5 May 2015, was suspended on 22 May 2019, was told on 14 June 2019 that no further action was intended but then suspended again on a new allegation, and was dismissed on 9 August 2019. He appealed on 15 August 2019 and the appeal was unsuccessful.

The tribunal found that the unfair dismissal claim should have been lodged by 8 November 2019 but was not lodged until 17 December 2019, after the ACAS certificate issued on 16 December 2019. The claimant said he was unaware of the time limit, felt numb and traumatised, and had been dealing with counselling and efforts to find work, but the tribunal found there was no medical evidence relating to the period after dismissal and did not accept his evidence about why the claim was late.