Mr L Jones v The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police — 2024

The judgment concerned the respondent's application for a costs order after the claimant withdrew his disability discrimination and protected disclosure detriment claims on the last working day before the listed final hearing. The respondent sought £20,000, alleging that the claimant had acted vexatiously, abusively, disruptively or otherwise unreasonably in bringing or conducting the proceedings and then withdrawing them.

The Tribunal found that the claimant had not acted unreasonably in relation to alleged protected disclosures, and that although his representative acted unreasonably by failing to clarify the comparators relied on for the direct disability discrimination complaint until shortly before the hearing, the respondent had not shown compensable loss arising from that issue. The Tribunal therefore declined to exercise its discretion to award costs on that ground.

The Tribunal also rejected the contention that the claimant acted vexatiously or unreasonably by seeking to preserve a possible personal injury claim outside the Employment Tribunal proceedings. It found that this approach followed legal advice and was not without a discernible legal basis. The Tribunal accepted that the claimant's representatives came off the record late on 24 March 2023, that his mental health was not good, and that he would not have been in a position to represent himself at the final hearing. Considering the conduct overall, the Tribunal held that the threshold for making a costs order was not met and the respondent's costs application failed.