Mrs M Lopacinska v Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust — 2021

At a preliminary hearing, the tribunal considered whether the claims should be struck out under Rule 37 on the basis that they had no reasonable prospect of success. The claimant had presented claims including age discrimination, religion or belief discrimination, race discrimination, sex discrimination and whistleblowing detriment, but had not provided particulars explaining the factual basis of those complaints.

The tribunal found that, despite earlier directions, a request for further and better particulars, and several months in which to explain the case, the claimant had still provided only vague allegations of mistreatment and had not identified why any treatment was said to be because of a protected characteristic. The judgment also noted that the claimant had not raised discrimination with the respondent during employment and that documents relied on did not refer to discrimination.

Applying the strike-out jurisdiction, the tribunal concluded that the claims as pleaded had no reasonable prospect of success. It also noted prejudice to the respondent in having to meet unparticularised allegations about events from many months earlier, and cancelled the final hearing previously listed for September 2021.