Mr A Lawrence v George Walker Transport Manchester Limited — 2023

On 1 December 2023 Regional Employment Judge Franey heard Mr A Lawrence's application under rule 38(2) to set aside the unless order made on 14 December 2022 and reinstate proceedings that Employment Judge Allen had dismissed on 16 May 2023. The claimant's original July 2018 claim had included unfair dismissal and disability discrimination. Mr Lawrence did not attend in person, but after emailing the tribunal and speaking to the clerk he said he did not want the hearing postponed, and the tribunal proceeded in his absence.

The judge reviewed the history leading to the unless order, including earlier warnings about the claimant's use of abusive, derogatory and foul language in correspondence. The order had been made only after that conduct continued, and Employment Judge Allen had later found that the claimant breached it by continuing to send correspondence referring to the respondent's representatives as dishonest, which led to dismissal of the case under rule 38. In support of reinstatement, the claimant argued that his language was a matter of 'bad context' and that this was a protected philosophical belief, but the tribunal treated that point as irrelevant to the rule 38 application.

Applying rule 38, the overriding objective and the EAT authorities it identified, the tribunal held that it was not in the interests of justice to set the order aside. It found that the original unless order had not been made lightly, that the breach was deliberate and repeated, that the respondent and its representatives had been prejudiced by repeated accusations and the distress and cost of dealing with them, and that the claimant had shown no contrition. The tribunal also concluded that there was no prospect of the litigation being conducted fairly if revived, so the application was refused and the earlier dismissal stood; the case was at an end.