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NLJ this week: Incomplete documentation, ‘bad apples’ & vicarious liability in whistleblowing

13 June 2025
Issue: 8120 / Categories: Legal News , Employment , Tribunals , Whistleblowing
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Is there such a thing as a ‘bad apple’ principle in employment law? In this week’s NLJ, Ian Smith, barrister, emeritus professor of employment law at the Norwich Law School, UEA, covers four recent, important cases of value for practitioners

They span the requirement of causation in part-time worker less favourable treatment cases, and the best approach to incomplete documentation in an appeal. Smith’s employment law brief also covers vicarious liability of agents in whistleblowing cases and the position of job evaluation schemes in equal value cases.

On incomplete documentation, Smith writes that a 2023 amendment to the regulations ‘was to remedy the position whereby approximately a fifth of appeals to the EAT were in time but missing some documentation, taking up too much of the EAT’s time. The aim was therefore to relax the previous strictness in cases of partial failure to comply in a case where the appeal was otherwise in time… The holding of the Court of Appeal was that the EAT’s approach failed to give effect to this clear intent’. 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

NLJ Career Profile: Kate Gaskell, Flex Legal

NLJ Career Profile: Kate Gaskell, Flex Legal

Kate Gaskell, CEO of Flex Legal, reflects on chasing her childhood dreams underscores the importance of welcoming those from all backgrounds into the profession

Dorsey & Whitney—Jonathan Christy

Dorsey & Whitney—Jonathan Christy

Dispute resolution team welcomes associate in London

Winckworth Sherwood—Kevin McManamon

Winckworth Sherwood—Kevin McManamon

Special education needs and mental capacity expert joins as partner

NEWS
Overcrowded prisons, mental health hospitals and immigration centres are failing to meet international and domestic human rights standards, the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) has warned
Two speedier and more streamlined qualification routes have been launched for probate and conveyancing professionals
Workplace stress was a contributing factor in almost one in eight cases before the employment tribunal last year, indicating its endemic grip on the UK workplace
In Ward v Rai, the High Court reaffirmed that imprecise points of dispute can and will be struck out. Writing in NLJ this week, Amy Dunkley of Bolt Burdon Kemp reports on the decision and its implications for practitioners
Could the Supreme Court’s ruling in R v Hayes; R v Palombo unintentionally unsettle future complex fraud trials? Maia Cohen-Lask of Corker Binning explores the question in NLJ this week
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