Claimant v Secretary of State for Justice
Outcome
Individual claims
The claim was dismissed in full following a final merits hearing. The tribunal found against the claimant on all disability discrimination claims including direct discrimination.
The claim was dismissed in full following a final merits hearing. The tribunal found against the claimant on discrimination arising from disability.
The claim was dismissed in full following a final merits hearing. The tribunal found the respondent had not failed to make reasonable adjustments.
The victimisation claim was dismissed in full following the final merits hearing. The tribunal did not find that the claimant had been subjected to victimisation.
The unauthorised deduction from wages claim was dismissed in full following the final merits hearing.
Facts
The claimant brought multiple claims including disability discrimination (direct, arising from disability, and failure to make reasonable adjustments), victimisation, and unauthorised deduction from wages against her employer, the Secretary of State for Justice. The claims related to her employment at Wrexham and later at Newtown following redeployment. The case involved complex and voluminous documentation (672 pages), multiple preliminary hearings, and a full merits hearing split across May and October 2024.
Decision
All of the claimant's claims were dismissed following a full merits hearing concluded in October 2024. The claimant subsequently applied for a preparation time order alleging unreasonable conduct by the respondent, but this was refused. The judge found no evidence that the respondent acted vexatiously, abusively, disruptively or unreasonably, concluding that both parties worked hard on complex litigation and there was a fair hearing.
Practical note
A preparation time order will not be granted merely because litigation was complex and required substantial effort; there must be unreasonable conduct meeting the high threshold in the tribunal rules, and genuine misunderstandings in case preparation do not meet that bar.
Case details
- Case number
- 1600873/2022
- Decision date
- 19 February 2025
- Hearing type
- costs
- Hearing days
- —
- Classification
- procedural
Respondent
- Sector
- central government
- Represented
- No
- Rep type
- self
Claimant representation
- Represented
- No