Mr J Davidson v Steven Anderson t/a Ashwood Car Service Centre — 2020

This judgment concerned only the Claimant’s application for a preparation time order dated 27 July 2021. The Tribunal summarised the procedural history, including that the underlying ET1 had advanced claims for unfair dismissal in circumstances said to amount to constructive dismissal, notice pay, holiday pay, arrears of pay and other payments, and that the application for preparation time was later reserved until the substantive proceedings had concluded.

The Claimant sought a preparation time order for work done on the ET1, reviewing Tribunal correspondence, requesting documents, preparing for the aborted February 2021 case management hearing, corresponding with the Tribunal and the Respondent’s agent between March and June 2021, preparing a schedule of loss, responding to the reconsideration application, and preparing the application itself. The Tribunal held that much of this was work that would have had to be done in the normal course of proceedings and would not justify an order. It also held that the threshold for unreasonable conduct under Rule 76(1)(a) was not met, accepting the Respondent’s agent’s explanation that the missed hearing and failure to respond were due to an IT error causing Tribunal emails to go to a hidden mailbox. The application was therefore refused.