EAT PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Costs
The employment tribunal ordered the employee, following the dismissal of his claim for unfair dismissal, to pay his employer’s costs of defending the claim, those costs to be the subject of a detailed assessment by the county court on the indemnity basis. The appeal was on the ground that the assessment should not have been on the indemnity basis, and that the tribunal had failed to take into account the employee’s inability to pay a large award of costs. The appeal was allowed on the basis that the tribunal did not appear to have considered (a) the effect of the order it made, which was that the employee would have to sell his home where he lived with his wife and two dependant children, his half-share in the home representing a very substantial proportion of his life savings, and (b) the possibility of putting a cap on the amount he had to pay. The EAT also held that an order for indemnity costs should only be made when the conduct of the paying party had taken the case away from even that very limited number of cases in the employment tribunal when it is appropriate to make an order for costs.
Keith J
[2013] UKEAT 0509 – 12 – 3004
Bailii
England and Wales
Employment, Costs
Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.511057
