Mr T S Chaudhry v Hopwood Hall College — 2026

This judgment concerned the respondent's costs application after a five-day final hearing had to be adjourned on the first day. The claimant was in Pakistan and had not sought diplomatic permission to give evidence by video from there. The Tribunal had first become aware on 2 March 2026 that the claimant was in Pakistan, and he explicitly confirmed on 6 March 2026, one working day before the hearing, that he intended to give evidence from Pakistan.

Employment Judge Cookson found that the claimant's conduct was unreasonable. The January 2025 case management orders had warned him about the need for permission to give evidence from outside the UK and directed him to relevant information. The judge was not satisfied that the claimant had offered a reasonable explanation for failing to alert the Tribunal and the respondent earlier that he could not travel back to the UK, and found that the late adjournment arose from the claimant's failure to act sooner rather than from an unexpected late change in his medical position.

The Tribunal applied the costs provisions in the Employment Tribunal Rules of Procedure 2024 and found that the costs threshold was met both because the postponement application was made less than seven days before the hearing and because the claimant had acted unreasonably. The judge took account of the claimant being a litigant in person, but found that he had been given the necessary information and expressly warned that giving evidence from abroad should be assumed not to be possible.

The Tribunal exercised its discretion to make a costs order. It noted that the respondent was a publicly funded further education college, found no basis to criticise its solicitor, and accepted that some preparation work would be wasted because the hearing could not be relisted until June 2027. The claimant provided business accounts but no evidence of his personal income, outgoings, savings or other assets, so the judge found no reason to reduce the costs on means grounds. The claimant was ordered to pay the full amount claimed, £17,103.10.