Ms N Soruklu v Shelter, The National Campaign for Homeless People — 2020

Ms Soruklu brought disability discrimination complaints arising from disciplinary action taken on 18 December 2018 and the Respondent's report to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The preliminary hearing on 6 July 2020 addressed only time limits under s.123 Equality Act 2010 and whether it was just and equitable to extend time. The tribunal accepted medical evidence that the events in late 2018 contributed to the claimant's bipolar affective disorder, and that she was severely depressed and suicidal from December 2018 to 31 July 2019, including a period of psychiatric admission from 31 May 2019.

The tribunal nevertheless found that by 7 November 2019 the claimant was recorded as feeling more stable and grounded, and it treated that entry as reliable in the absence of contradictory contemporaneous medical evidence. It found that the claim was nearly a year after the last alleged act on 20 December 2018, that the ACAS certificate was issued on 19 December 2019, and that the Tribunal claim was not presented until 5 February 2020. Applying the wide but exceptional discretion to extend time, including Robertson v Bexley Community Centre t/a Leisure Link and Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police v Caston, the tribunal concluded that the delay would prejudice the Respondent and that the claimant had not shown it was just and equitable to extend time.

The tribunal noted the claimant's submissions about her mother and father assisting with ACAS and the claim, but held that if they were acting for her they should have proceeded more quickly once the ACAS certificate issued. It also said later events in January 2020, including the car accident and the solicitor issue raised in submissions, did not alter the conclusion that the complaints could and should have been brought sooner. The tribunal therefore held that it had no jurisdiction to consider the complaints and dismissed them.