Unless Orders
by Sarah
Fortunately the situation arises infrequently where we are tearing our hair out in despair at the failure of the other side to comply with the Tribunal’s orders. This may be down frequently to the legal representation on both sides. I have however had a case recently where I acted for an employer in an Unfair Dismissal case where the employee was irgnoring both me and the Tribunal Orders.
We received no documents or confirmation that there was none, no schedule of loss and no statements from witnesses. As the employee had acted in person I had written to him well in advance telling him what he had to do and by when and that if he was unsure he should seek legal advice.
Imagine my despair when the hearing is fast approaching and there is no response. I made an application to the Tribunal for an Unless Order. This was accompanied by the copies of the various letters I had sent chasing each direction. The Tribunal rather than grant the unless order then wrote to him to ask him for his comment. This I found a little odd. As an officer of the court I am telling them he has not complied and if they made the Order and he had, he could just tell them that was the case.
With less than a week to go still no unless order. Our attendance on the day of the hearing was excused as we were unsure as to whether the Claimant would attend. He did and withdrew his claim. Thankfully for him my client decided not to throw more money after bad and pursue him for a costs order irrespective of the positive chance of success.
I did wonder whether if they had made the unless order I would then have had to write in to the Tribunal to have the Claim struck out. The answer has been revealed in a recent case of Chukwudebelu v Chubb Security Personnel which had clarified that like County Court proceedings the order takes effect on the day that it expires. I did not need to make a further application. It would probably have been worth chasing the Tribunal for the order of strike out but no further application would have been necessary. Whilst not frequently used, this is of note on the rare occasions that we have to get out the stick!
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