Not present or represented For the v Ms Nicola Brown, solicitor — 2021

The claim presented on 10 August 2020 alleged unfair dismissal and direct race discrimination. The unfair dismissal claim had already been rejected by Employment Judge Loy because the claimant did not have sufficient continuous employment: she started on 1 September 2018 and resigned with immediate effect on 22 July 2020, so the tribunal said the unfair dismissal claim was outside jurisdiction.

The race discrimination claim was not set out clearly in the ET1, and the respondent said it could not meaningfully respond because the factual basis was unclear. After directions for disclosure and further information, the claimant sent a long document on 14 April 2021, but the tribunal said it did not comply with the order for simple additional information. The claimant then failed to attend the preliminary hearing on 15 July 2021 and the hearing on 2 March 2022.

At the 2 March 2022 hearing, Employment Judge Hyams applied rule 47 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013, concluded that the claimant was not pressing the race discrimination claim, and dismissed it in the interests of justice. The judge recorded that the factual basis for the claim still remained unclear and that the claimant had twice failed to attend preliminary hearings without giving a good reason. The respondent applied for costs, but the tribunal rejected the arguments that the claim had no reasonable prospect of success or had been brought unreasonably; it did find that the proceedings had been conducted unreasonably, but made no costs order.