The excellent Employment Tribunal Claims blog (which I shall now belatedly add to my blogroll), has performed some analysis on the frequency and amount of costs orders in the tribunals.
In summary, they report that the percentage of cases which proceed to a full hearing that result in a costs order against the Claimant is less than 1%, and that the majority of these are for figures significantly less than £1,000.
Of course, the statistic we can never know is in how many cases that proceed to a hearing is a warning on costs issued by the Respondent’s representative? Somewhat higher methinks…
If you are in person and on the receiving end of a letter warning you of a costs application, perhaps accompanied by some terrifying schedule, then treat it as a warning to do what you should be doing at all times – taking an objective look at your case to see if there is a prospect of success. If your claim is one that might succeed, and your conduct of the litigation has been reasonable, then the very broad view is that you don’t need to worry too much about costs.
This is exactly what I thought before going to Tribunal. I believed that my case might succeed. I did not receive a cost warning until the matter was actually being heard by the Tribunal. I still received a cost order for to pay a sum of around £25k subject to county court assessment. This is following a previous cost order for £10,000 in respect of the same Respondent.
It is therefore very important for all claimants to be prepared for the unexpected !!
Beware of the costs risks tribunals don’t tell you about it. By the time you find out you may be in a position where if you cancel your case then you still have to pay costs.
myself and a colleague went to employment tribunal representinng ourselves after our posts being made redundant,redundancy figures supplied and then being told we could be slotted into a very different role that was not as policy dictated 80% the same in duties as our previous role ,we both resigned from our jobs, my colleagues case was dismissed when a clause was foundat tribunal that if she worked for another nhs provider she was not entitled to redundancy mine continues as i do not. she has just recievd a claim for £38,000 costs from the solicitors /barrister for costs , i am terrfied now as to the same happening to me eventually even though i have been told to return to explain why the offer of suitable employment is not so what shall i do >? please