Awaiting judgment

If your case is currently being heard in the Employment Tribunal and you are worried about the outcome, the best thing you can do is take detailed notes of the hearing in case you need to appeal.

Written reasons - 14 days from oral decision

You have 14 days from the date of the oral decision to apply in writing for written reasons. 

Apply for written reasons

To apply for written reasons, you or your representative should write to the tribunal where your case was heard and ask for written reasons.

42 days to appeal

You have 42 days (6 weeks) from the date that the written reasons are sent to you to appeal to the EAT.

Permission to Appeal and The Sift

An EAT judge will decide 'on the papers' whether you have any arguable grounds for appeal. The judge who takes that decision is called the sift judge.

Submitting an Appeal

To submit an appeal to the EAT, you will need to complete a Notice of Appeal.

Grounds of Appeal

Remember, you can only appeal to the EAT on a point of law. 

You cannot use the appeal process to re-argue your case where you think the ET got the facts wrong. If this is your position, you should consider requesting a reconsideration.

Reconsideration

If you disagree with the Employment Tribunal's decision, you can request that they reconsider.

The application must be made within 14 days of the hearing, or of receiving written reasons.

Perversity

The decision arrived at was one that no reasonable tribunal could have arrived at.

Arguing for perversity can be tempting when you are inexperienced, because it seems like an opportunity to argue that the outcome is wrong. Remember, you cannot use the appeal process to re-argue your case!

Bias (or the Appearance of Bias)

Beware:

This is another ground which is often argued by litigants in person, but is very difficult to establish.

Judges will read the papers before the hearing and may have formed a preliminary view before the hearing. This is entirely appropriate, as long as you are given a fair hearing.