Employment tribunal

[Ellie586]

In February i am due to be a witnesss for the respondants at an employment tribunal in an unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination case. Does anyone have any experience of being a witness ?? Is the cross examination brutual ? Or do they go easier on the witnesses as they are not necessarily there through choice.

I'm an employment lawyer and while I always try to be fair and civil to witnesses, at the end of the day my main concern/aim is getting the best result from my client and if that means putting a witness through their paces, then that's what I do. Just try and remember it's nothing personal and they don't mean any harm to you at all, they're just doing their job.

Are you being called for the Claimant or the Respondent?

I'm being called for the respondant.

Is the claimant's position that you somehow were involved in/caused the discriminatory treatment, or are you simply being called to talk to what you did, or didn't, witness?

If it's the later you're unlikely to get a total grilling I'd say. If it's the former potentially more likely to, but again you just need to remember it's nothing personal against you.

Good luck!

No i wasnt involved in the discrimination.

Thanks for replying. I will try to answer best i can and not take it too personally.

The best tip I've heard is you should face the judge, and address him when asked question by anyone.

This way you don't face the court, you can take your time and not get rattled by the questioning.

whatthehelldowecare

I'm an employment lawyer

Not a very good one, since you asked:

Are you being called for the Claimant or the Respondent?

Which the OP stated in their opening 12 words.

I've been to a few. It's usually the respondent's representatives who try to break down the claimant. I've never seen a witness treated with hostility.

Saying that, judges are VERY aware that there is often a circling of the wagon after a claimant leaves, and the remaining employees will often lie/minimise what happened out of fear for their own position or some misplaced loyalty.

Once case I observed it was clear that every single witness from the employer was lying. It was like a course on Bad Acting for Court. The judge said nothing during the trial but eviscerated the witnesses his final judgement. It was glorious.