ET3 Response

[whatalife657]

Evening
Hope you are well.
Finding myself between a rock and hard place. Need some support pls.
I raised an tribunal claim and have received the ET3.The claims have been rejected by the employer.

They have also sent an email titled "Without Prejudice Save as to Costs" and asked if I would like to withdraw by <xxx> date. If I don't withdraw by <xxx>
date, they could seek a costs order.

Below are my options
a) Use a solicitor
Will cost me 1000's of pounds

b) Go with the withdrawal
How can I ensure that they will fully comply and not request for ET3 costs after I withdraw. Could I ask them to be more specific and exactly say around the lines of "If you withdraw, we will not seek any costs and you would have to pay 0£"

c) Fight it on my own
Sounds so intimidating to me. Never been to a court and sounds so stressful. Is this achievable? Could I pay a solicitor to help me with guidelines of the steps involved

Have a good evening . Ta

Have you spoken to ACAS at all? Costs are pretty rarely awarded at ET, I thought.

@devildeepbluesea Yes, I called them . But they term this as legal advice and cant advise on option (b).

OP no one can tell you what to do, a solicitor can only give you the % chance of winning.

Without details of your case what I can say is:

The without prejudice means they don’t want to got to ET and are looking for a settlement agreement. You can have a discussion with them about what they are offering i.e. ex GRA is payment, to put in the reasonable adjustments you have requested etc. In this situation your employer must pay for you to have independent legal advice. What you will need to consider is whether or not their offer is reasonable. You may get more at an ET but there is no guarantee. Note part of the agreement would be they don’t pursue costs.

Note: Do not pull out of the ET until the settlement agreement is signed and in place.

You can go to ET, it will be costly not just in monetary terms but emotionally.

With out knowing the details I can only advise you to consider how confident are you that you will win your ET, do you have them bang to rights or is it more 50:50? If it is the latter the settlement agreement may be the way to go.

Many cases never get to ET because they are settled.

Just a thought have you had early conciliation via ACAS?

HTH

Sorry it should say ex gracia payment - auto correct is such a nightmare.

Most solicitors will offer a free initial session. This would at least give you some indication on whether you have a claim worth taking all the way to an ET.

Check your home insurance. If you ticked to include "legal cover" box this can often cover legal fees for an employment issue.

It really does come down to the nature of your case and unfortunately the cost scares many people away - and employers know that so they'll play their poker face as long as they need to.

Check online and social media support. Again, depending on the nature of your claim there are various groups/individuals who blog/protest/challenge the way certain things happen. Bigger groups/charities will have helplines for people to contact to seek advice from.

Hopefully you will have sought some sort of legal advice to have initiated the Tribunal process with submission of your ET1, to have validated that you had grounds for a case to be heard at ET?

Their ET3 rejecting your allegations - well they would say that, wouldn't they. They would not agree to your claim even if it was the most rock sold case ever.

i would definitely have a Without Prejudice conversation with them to explore their options, albeit I would say it's rare for them to engage in that conversation meaningfully ( ie they could be playing silly b's with you in an attempt to make you withdraw) unless they have a strong reason to,believe that you'd take them all the way to ET eg if you've asserted a Discrimination claim, with valid facts that stack up well.

Don't withdraw, hold your nerve, at least take it through the Early Conciliation process to show them you mean business. It's a game of chicken, who will blink first, make sure it isn't you. The good thing about getting a solicitor involved it shows them you're resolute. The bad thing is that it costs you money.

Why do you feel you have a claim? Did anyone advise you?

it is unlikely that costs would be awarded, but they can be if they’ve given a costs warning and your claim is without merit.

I didn’t read that they were offering anything. I read it that they have said if you don’t withdraw we might go for costs should you lose at tribunal.

OP, really impossible for anyone to suggest what you should do, it would depend upon the strength of your case.

“Without prejudice” is a very specific type of discussion and means the employer is trying to reach an agreement. It is very likely an ex gracia payment will form part of the discussions but they would not state this unless the employee agreed to have a without prejudice discussion first.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/problems-at-work/employment-tribunals1/employment-tribunals2/check-what-it-might-cost-to-make-an-employment-tribunal-claim/