This fact sheet gives you FACTS and TIPS regarding your rights when considering bringing a claim against your employer. The below information is correct as of January 1st 2025 and was kindly drafted for Pregnant Then Screwed by Law student volunteers from Chester Community Law Project (based within The University of Chester’s School of Law and Social Justice).
This sheet gives you FACTS and TIPS about preliminary hearings
FACT: Preliminary hearings happen before a full hearing of your claim is heard. There are two types:
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Case Management Hearings.
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Preliminary hearings to decide a point of law.
FACT: You may have a case management hearing if your claim is particularly complicated. They usually take place remotely (over the phone or via other electronic means).
Before case management hearings, you will be sent a case management agenda, available from:
https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/empl-trib-agenda-for-case-management-at-prelim-hearing-20170810.pdf
After the case management hearing, the Tribunal will then follow up with a Case Management Order, setting out the things you must do by a certain time to make sure the case runs smoothly.
TIP: It is very important to do the things that the tribunal tells you to do, by the deadlines they give you.
FACT: The Tribunal may list a preliminary hearing to decide a point of law which needs to be clarified before the final hearing can take place.
The issues generally discussed in a preliminary hearing will be:
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Whether you are disabled as defined by law (if claiming disability discrimination);
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Whether you are an employee (only employees can claim unfair dismissal and redundancy payments);
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Whether your claim is in time (your employer might say that you are outside of the three months less one day time limit for bringing your claim). If the judge decides your claims have been presented out of time, they may ‘strike out’ the claim meaning it will not proceed.
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Whether you were dismissed (when the employer disputes that you were in fact dismissed).
To find out more about this project, click here.
