Mr S Lik v Archis Scaffolding Solutions Ltd — 2022

This was a costs judgment arising from the adjournment of a Preliminary Hearing on 27 January 2022 before Tribunal Judge Overton sitting as an Employment Judge. The hearing was adjourned because the Claimant's witness statement referred to a large number of documents that had been sent to the Tribunal Service in numerous emails but had not been collated into a bundle before the Judge. The Respondent applied for costs of £14,300 plus VAT under rule 76 of the Employment Tribunal Rules 2013, on the basis that the Claimant's conduct of the case had been unreasonable.

Applying the three-stage approach in Milan v Capsticks Solicitors LLP & Others UKEAT/0093/14/RN, the Judge concluded under rule 76(1)(a) that the Claimant had acted unreasonably in his approach to preparing for the second Preliminary Hearing and in failing to co-operate with the Respondent's representative in preparing a joint bundle. The Judge also observed that the Respondent could have included the disputed documents in a separate section of the bundle rather than leaving the Claimant to produce his own. In relation to the directions made by EJ Gardiner in December 2021, the Judge found the Claimant's responses had been inadequate but that he had not acted unreasonably in that respect.

Exercising discretion at the second and third stages of the Milan analysis, and having regard to the Claimant's confirmation that he earned over £60,000 a year and supported his wife and two daughters, the Judge ordered the Claimant to pay a £250 contribution to the Respondent's costs of preparing for the adjourned Preliminary Hearing.