Claimant v Hart v Yorkshire Academy of Creative Arts & Dance Ltd — 2024

At the hearing on 27 August 2024, Employment Judge JM Wade considered whether to strike out the claimant’s claims or make alternative case management orders. After a preliminary hearing on 17 May 2024, the claimant had been ordered to explain why the claim was presented out of time and to provide medical evidence and records if she relied on an asserted disability by reason of Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder, Anxiety and PTSD. By the hearing she had not provided the ordered material. She said the parties were trying to settle through ACAS and that she wanted a reference from the respondent covering her work from 2014 onwards.

The tribunal found that the claims remained too unclear and that, as they stood and until clarified, they had no reasonable prospects of success. The judge noted that fairness might otherwise require an adjournment or an unless order, but concluded that there was no prospect of the claimant overcoming the time limit issues in relation to the unclear whistleblowing and discrimination complaints about events in summer 2022. The judgment states that the claimant had not engaged with the case management orders and had only at the last minute referred to medical records available online.

The claims were struck out under Rule 37(1)(a) of the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013. The tribunal also recorded that the reference the claimant sought was not a remedy the Tribunal could give, even if an arguable claim were identified and succeeded.