Hi All,
For obvious reasons I have a new username! :-)
My partner (female) had some trouble with sexual harassment at work including non-consensual touching (i.e. criminal). The employment law process is ongoing (it started first because there was a 12 week time limit to commence) and the police/criminal process is paused pending my partner being able to talk to them (i.e. when the stress of the tribunal process has finished).
Anyway…. we have a bit of a catch 22 problem that other people must have come up against? :
- The employment lawyer (civil law) is asking my partner to call the witnesses and ask them if he can call them. He says if he calls out of the blue they will likely clam up and not co-operate. He’s not interested in the criminal process and thinks the police won’t be interested in prosecuting (that may be the case however my partner will likely want all the evidence on record so that if the offender tries this again there may be a tipping point in the amount of evidence and he gets prosecuted for everything – or maybe in the meantime he’ll accept a caution)
- The investigating police officer (criminal law) is happy for the tribunal process to go first but is insisting my partner does not contact any witnesses (even by text) as it could be presented as collusion by the defence – but he’s happy for my partner’s lawyer to contact the witnesses directly (this would be out of the blue and the lawyer is concerned people will clam up as I mentioned before). The police have said they don’t need to contact the witnesses before the employment lawyer does.
What do you think we should do? I was half thinking of insisting that the criminal investigation goes before the civil process (as I think is normally the case with most crimes?)?
Thank you for your help!