Miss S Repkova v Wex & Co Estate Agents — 2020

This was a preliminary hearing before Employment Judge Loy sitting alone at Watford on 25 November 2019. The respondent applied to strike out the claimant's claim, saying the claimant had failed to comply with an order to send the documents on which she intended to rely not less than 7 days before the hearing, and that it had been disadvantaged because the documents were only provided on 22 November 2019 for a 25 November 2019 hearing.

The tribunal rejected that application. It held that the tribunal's letter of 11 March 2019 did not contain any order requiring the parties to provide in advance the documents on which they intended to rely. The judge found that the paragraph relied on by the respondent referred to written representations, not documents, and explained that written representations are not the same thing as documents.

The tribunal said that documents were dealt with in the following paragraph of the 11 March 2019 letter, which required each party to bring to the hearing the documents on which they intended to rely, with sufficient copies. On that basis, the judge found that the claimant was not in breach of any tribunal order. The respondent's strike-out application therefore had no merit and was dismissed. The judgment did not determine the substantive claim itself and recorded no monetary award.