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Unison: unfair is not unlawful

08 September 2017
Issue: 7760 / Categories: Legal News , Tribunals , Employment
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The Supreme Court’s ruling that employment tribunal fees ‘are unfair, therefore they are unlawful’ is ‘surprising’, a senior employment law solicitor has said.

Writing in this week’s NLJGSC Solicitors partner Tessa Fry points out that most of the evidence was rejected by the High Court and the Court of Appeal, whereas the Supreme Court ‘accepted almost all of Unison’s arguments some of which were based on hypothetical examples and assumptions, rather than actual evidence’.

Fry says the introduction of fees was not the sole reason for the decline in tribunal cases, for example, the qualifying period for unfair dismissal was raised from one to two years, compensation for unfair dismissal was limited to 12 months’ pay, and tribunals were given increased powers to strike out claims at an early stage.

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Ceri Morgan, knowledge counsel at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP, analyses the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Johnson v FirstRand Bank Ltd, which reshapes the law of fiduciary relationships and common law bribery
The boundaries of media access in family law are scrutinised by Nicholas Dobson in NLJ this week
Reflecting on personal experience, Professor Graham Zellick KC, Senior Master of the Bench and former Reader of the Middle Temple, questions the unchecked power of parliamentary privilege
Geoff Dover, managing director at Heirloom Fair Legal, sets out a blueprint for ethical litigation funding in the wake of high-profile law firm collapses
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