Employment

All types of employment dispute are susceptible to Independent Evaluation.

Where an employment dispute is likely to result in a significant award of compensation in the Employment Tribunal or damages in the civil courts, IE makes considerable sense. It still makes sense even though issue and hearing fees are now no longer payable because, leaving aside a minority of exceptional cases, this is a no costs regime with, therefore, no prospect of recovering the significant sums expended. In employment litigation in the civil courts usually there is a great deal at stake in any event, as well as the likelihood the payment of considerable issue and hearing fees.

Most litigation has an emotional component and this is particularly true of employment disputes. Independent Evaluation affords a way of cutting through that aspect of the case by offering a neutral perspective of the likely outcome. IE is particularly well suited to employment disputes, which frequently involve not only factual conflict but also issues of legal analysis, such as statutory interpretation or construction documents.

Many employment disputes are, of course, fact sensitive but the whole point of IE is to enable the parties to have an indication from an Evaluator as to how the Tribunal or Court is likely to view the competing factual contentions. Even in discrimination cases, which are probably the most factually sensitive of any type of litigation and which have the unusual feature of the reverse burden of proof, an Evaluation can be made of both the likelihood that reversal and of the potential outcome. Of course, the value to the parties derives from the Evaluators having considerable experience in all forms of employment litigation.