Sarah King Employment Solicitor Northampton

Excello Law

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
01832 776464

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Services
  • News
  • Contact
  • Testimonials
    • Testimonials – employees
    • Testimonials – employers
  • Events
You are here: Home / News / News - Employment Tribunal Rules / Vexatious litigants in the Employment Tribunal

Vexatious litigants in the Employment Tribunal

19/06/2013 by Sarah King Leave a Comment

Whilst thankfully not something one comes across every day, I do have personal experience of acting for an employer client who faced one such serial litigant in their recruitment agency business.  The individual in question was an applicant for a job never having worked for the respondent or the other dozen or so respondents against whom he brought claims.  He had no need to earn a real living of course living off the no doubt countless settlement proceeds he secured to deal with the nuisance value of the claim.

Where an application for a strike out is refused under rule 18 of the Employment Tribunal Rules, what are the other options open to the client? Well a strike out was also refused in my case as it was a discrimination claim where such strike outs are rare. You can give a costs warning and secure costs as we did in one of the three cases but enforcement of the costs order is normally a waste of time.

You can lodge an application about the vexatious individual to the Attorney General’s Office for them to investigate in the hope that the AG then makes an application to the Employment Appeals Tribunal for a Restriction of Proceedings Order (RPO).  Again we tried this but progress was just too slow. An investigation must take place and the AG needs to determine it is in the public interest to make the application.

A less known route is that of a Civil Restraint Order in the High Court.  This is a more expensive route for the client but may be effective when dealing with serial vexatious litigants. The timing of the application is critical as it should be made without too much delay or else the Court may refuse the Order but not too soon to mean you do not have sufficient evidence to support your position. 

A Civil Restraint Order can be, a “limited” Order, which in essence means it prevents the litigant from making further applications in those proceedings without permission.  It can be an “extended” Order which prevents the litigant from issuing further claims or applications which concern any matter involving or relating to or even touching upon the issues in the current proceedings without permission.  Lastly, it could be a “general” Order where the litigant is prevented from issuing any claim or making any application without permission.

Whilst I had thought they were not widely used, a list can be found on the Ministry of Justice website which sets out the details of around 200 individuals currently subject to some form of Civil Restraint Order. Perhaps when acting for respondents in a claim which appears to be totally without merit, scandalous or vexatious a quick glance at the list may be in order.

Share this:

  • Tweet

Tag(s): Civil Restraint Order, costs awards in the employment tribunal, costs warnings in the employment tribunal, restriction of proceedings order, Stike out in the employment tribunal

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Our articles

  • Ask The Expert (7)
  • Events (7)
  • News (299)
    • News – Business Briefing (8)
    • News – Compromise/settlement agreements (13)
    • News – Contracts and Pay (38)
    • News – Discrimination (34)
    • News – Employee share agreements (2)
    • News – Employment Tribunal Rules (58)
    • News – Equal Pay (5)
    • News – Flexible working (1)
    • News – General (11)
    • News – Glossary (3)
    • News – Holidays and Holiday pay (11)
    • News – HR practice (25)
    • News – Maternity leave and paternity (6)
    • News – My news (9)
    • News – National Minimum Wage (11)
    • News – Parental leave (8)
    • News – Redundancy (5)
    • News – TUPE (12)
    • News – Unfair dismissal (31)
    • News – Whistleblowing (8)
  • Publications (1)
  • Testimonials (43)
    • Testimonials – Employees (33)
    • Testimonials – Employers (10)
  • Useful Resources (7)

Looking for something specific?

Our latest events

Discrimination Awareness Workshop

Workshop – Discrimination awareness – 20th October 2021

Workshop – How to handle conduct issues and grievances – 6th October 2021

Workshop – How to handle conduct issues and grievances

Workshop – How to handle conduct issues and grievances – 4th March 2020

Employment Law Update 2020

Employment law update 2020 – 5th February 2020

How to maximise attendance and manage performance workshop

Workshop – How to maximise attendance and manage performance – 7th March 2019

My latest Tweets

  • Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year https://t.co/EIq3uxwvwq 22/12/2020 10:36 am
  • ACAS early conciliation extension https://t.co/EzykpAQZX1 02/12/2020 3:20 pm
  • Good news for business but too late for many now redundant because furlough was ending #toolate £1000 bonus has bee… https://t.co/DpPEtn1JKI 05/11/2020 10:11 pm
  • Furlough scheme extended and JSS delayed by a month. Furlough extension at no % top up just pension and ni to be me… https://t.co/xcULZllN45 31/10/2020 9:47 pm
  • National lockdown from Thursday 😢and furlough to be extended. No idea in what form and whether it will save busines… https://t.co/vRqog54uuZ 31/10/2020 7:35 pm

Latest training

Our Address

Meetings by appointment at:
The Hall
Thorpe St
Raunds
Wellingborough
NN9 6LT

Correspondence address:
Excello Law Ltd
5 Chancery Lane
London
WC2A 1LG

Other offices:
Chester, Leeds & Liverpool

Sarah King t/a SK Employment Law is not a firm of solicitors. Sarah King is a consultant solicitor at Excello Law Limited and legal services are provided by Excello Law Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA number 512898.

Excello Law is authorised and regulated by The Solicitors Regulation Authority

· website by Silver Websites · All Rights Reserved · Privacy · Site Map ·

Back to Top

This website uses cookies. You may delete or block all cookies from this site in your browser options. By continuing to use this site you accept this. Read More
Accept Reject
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT