Mr S Sheldon v Tec Reports Ltd — 2019

This was a remote CVP hearing on 29 March 2021 before Employment Judge Blackwell sitting alone. The judgment did not determine the merits of Mr Sheldon’s substantive claims; it dealt only with an application that the judge recuse himself.

The application arose because Mr Taylor, who was a witness for Mr Sheldon in these proceedings, had previously brought a case against the same respondent that Judge Blackwell heard on 3 and 4 January 2019. In that earlier case the judge made a number of findings of fact that depended on his assessment of the credibility of Mr Griffin and Mrs Davies, and he said he had also been critical of Mr Griffin in the written reasons.

The judge recorded the recusal test as whether the hearing was free from apparent bias, assessed by asking whether the circumstances would lead a fair-minded and informed observer to conclude that there was a real possibility that the tribunal was biased. He concluded that, on balance, he should recuse himself because of the adverse view he had taken of the credibility of Mr Griffin and Ms Davies in the earlier Taylor case, and because his recollection of that case had returned as he read the reasons again.

The judge also invited the parties to consider judicial mediation, but Mr Sheldon did not wish to engage, so that was not pursued. The only order in the judgment was that the judge recuse himself.