Allison Bailey v Stonewall

[impossibletoday]

https://x.com/BluskyeAllison/status/1979480101474443398?t=Sg3wz-Pq2S7lpQ2rTpJZ2g&s=19

Yes, but the stakes are high, and the appeal court judges need to be very sure that there is legal assuredness underpinning the 'elaborate advocacy' should they be minded to find for Allison.

Legally speaking, these are unchartered waters and should the appeal be granted in Allison's favour, my understanding is that this appeal case will become 'the authority'. If I were in their shoes I'd be wanting to get into the legal bones of the case too, before the 'fleshing out' stage. This has led to a bit of what looks like 'hard time' / pre-emptive questioning!

I admire how Ben Cooper remains so calm and unflustered, has instant recall of details, and offers helpful analogies. But most of all, I admire his clear legal argument, with reference to actual words in the actual Equality Act 2010, as to why he (i.e. Allison) is legally right. So in that respect, the judges' questions are very useful.

Nothing he can’t handle, I’ll be bound.

They're being rigorous, as is right. And from my limited experience, I would be worried if they weren't.

It's my first time being Ben Cooper in action. He's great.

Very well said, exactly.

I also like the way he relates the working of any provisions of the EA back to how an ordinary person would understand it. (He did this in FWS, too.) Rulings have to be fit for purpose in the real world where duty-bearers don't have lawyers on tap.

From @TribunalTweets2 on TwiX (TT2)

The Appeal of Allison Bailey v Stonewall Equality Ltd re-starts this afternoon at 13.55. The proceedings will also be live-streamed here:
youtube.com
Royal Courts of Justice Court 72

Co-respondents are Garden Court Chambers, Rajiv Menon KC and Stephanie Harrison KC of GCC

The Panel are: Lord Justice Bean, Lord Justice Newey and Lady Justice Whipple

Key legal documents can be found here

https://tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/allison-bail
ey-vs-stonewall

Abbreviations for today's hearing:

AB - Allison Bailey KC Claimant
C - Claimant
RM - Rajiv Menon KC
SH - Stephanie Harrison KC
SW - Stonewall Equality Ltd
R or Rs - Respondent (s)
BC - Ben Cooper KC, Barrister for Claimant Allison Bailey
PD Peter Daily Solicitor for Claimant

IO - Ijeoma Omambala KC - Barrister for Respondents
J - Judge (if unidentified which judge)
LB - Lord Justice Bean
LN - Lord Justice Newey
W - Lady Justice Whipple
GCC - Garden Court Chambers
GI - Gender identity

WORIADS - Worthy of respect in a democratic society
SO - Sexual orientation
L and G - Lesbian and/or gay
ET - Employment tribunal
T - Transgender

Our live tweeting is not a verbatim transcript. We attempt to report as much of what we hear in court as possible. We make every effort to report accurately and do so in good faith. We make frequent use of abbreviations: see the Substack page if meaning is not obvious.

We will correct any substantive inadvertent factual errors that are brought to our attention promptly. Our reporting is best understood when read as a whole.

https://
tribunaltweets.substack.com

Judges ask questions for a variety of reasons I think.

I suppose the judge [Judge Pickles, possibly?] who asked
"Who are The Beatles?"
at the height of Beatlemania was doing so to put this piece of what he considered cultural ephemera in context for the record, he wasn't leading that sheltered a life!

The reply is supposed to have been the wonderful
"I believe they are a popular beat combo, m'lud."😄

I paste posts as soon as I can from the TwiX feed. I start those posts with "From TT2" so you can tell they are not my own work.

If I comment my own opinion, it will be in separate posts.

I'm in hospital so may be interrupted by needing to have my blood pressure taken or talk to a medical professional. I also had a general anaesthetic this morning so I apologise in advance if I stop pasting because I become overwhelmed with tiredness and need to sleep.

It can also take a bit of time to format the posts to make them readable. I paste into a text editor then paste from there to here.

Has anyone else spotted the spelling mistake on the youtube feed?

Yes!

How do you get to the live stream of the pm session?

All I'm getting is this morning's session

I'm also confused. I think the live window will just appear on the yt feed's home page once they get going ETA yes, here we are now

@MyrtleLion you are a wonder and a love.

I don't even remember the day after I last had a GA.

https://www.youtube.com/live/DxQicEX0KyQ?si=nOEhjN3iBsAeZwGu

From TT2

We begin
BC talking about statues. The start point and the key concept are the protected charas and prohib conduct. Those are the from of conduct of the leg to iliminate

I was taken to theatre at 8.30am and in recovery at 9.30am, so I reckon I was only under for about half an hour. They cleaned out my wound and then closed it, so not a long procedure.

I'm still in awe

From TT2

BC - Part 3 p22 the statute contains various parts to prohibit various types of conduct: Services and public functions and P4 the premises P5 work P6 education P7 to associations. At that point we get to P8, which is headed 'conduct ancillary' dealing with relationships ended..

.liability of employees and agents for the acts they commit in their employment. Section 111 and 112 knowlingly aiding...conduct ancillary
1 - the primary context ought to inform must be the primary the primary prohib conduct
That's the primary

2 it's apparrent from the terms of the section itself what its purpose is.
What it is doing is reaching the overarching purpose of meeting discrimination by ensuring a person who is subjected to a detriment because of an interaction between 2 parties

If that is meant to link to the pm session I'm still only getting this morning...

What link are you using?

(I’m now grimly fascinated as to how they do that? A sort of meat scraper or a little hosepipe?)

Anyway, back to the courtroom …

From TT2

A and B that there is liability for any culp in that interaction where all of those relationships fall within the spheres where the Act applies. [Gives example]

BC - this is an area where you shouldn't be doing things to be prohibited within the statute
J - there must be a relationship between B and C?
BC - yes
J but not A and C?

BC it is to bridge that gap if a is doing things to b and c in this sphere and those things are culp in the EA sense
On the 1 hand absurd if person A could be liable in circs where he or she does not have the relevant consc or subcons motivation.

Hosepipe and scalpel, I believe. Hurts like a bastard. So they give me morphine every two hours.

I think this is the link https://www.youtube.com/live/kd-eCh4KijI?si=echHB5ghugyN3tzb

From TT2

But it would be equally absurd if A were not liable if their conduct had all of the chara of direct discrim... but some intervening cause that negated that liability.

How is anyone to know what it is they are not supposed to do The only poss source of these add features in the

underlying main forms of prohib conduct in P2 of the statutes and to this case - if the answer is just a protest what are the chara of a protest that mean having regard to the statute, that mean liability is to be negated

..this would related to someone's race or sex. There are other feature of Sect 111 that support a broad interp.
Para 46 at P32.
The one I pick up is at sub para 46.3