Image: Lisa prepares paperwork for her Tribunal claim.
GMLC’s Kate Bradley spoke to Lisa Murray, a successful Litigant in Person. Earlier this year, she won an unfair dismissal claim at the Employment Tribunal against her former employer, Hudson Administration Services, who made her redundant at the start of the Covid pandemic. Lisa talked about her experience of taking a claim against Hudson, and the challenges of being a Litigant in Person while experiencing health problems and home-schooling her daughter.
When the Covid pandemic hit, Lisa was working in the payroll department of Hudson Administration Services, which is sometimes described as “the construction industry’s largest provider of audit and contract services”. She’d been there for over 10 years, and now worked part-time to balance her work commitments with being a mum. Mostly, the experience of working there had been pleasant – she had a good relationship with her initial manager, who had ‘head-hunted’ her for her customer service skills while she was working at a dry cleaners. Things started to change when a new manager was put in place, and some comments were made that Lisa perceived as sexist.
Despite the changing environment at work, Lisa didn’t feel she needed to seek any advice at this stage. She was not a member of a trade union – she told me she “didn’t know what one really was”. Her employer had made clear that they had a “100% Tribunal success rate”, and Lisa felt that they took a dim view of unions, which permeated through the staff team.
In June 2020, the Covid pandemic meant that there was less work at Hudson, as construction had ground to a halt during the first Covid lockdown. Lisa’s manager let them know that there would have to be some lay-offs, and began a consultation process on who would be made redundant. Lisa was offered voluntary redundancy with a payout of £1000, but Lisa didn’t want to lose her job, so she rejected the offer. Staff were then put through a stressful performance assessment, and Lisa was told she had performed the least well in her team.
Lisa told me: “I trusted the person who was taking me through the process of the consultation. They used my naivety against me. I should have called Acas.”
Lisa did call Acas eventually, but it took “forever” to get through to the helpline, and she says they advised her to go back to the employer to get details of the consultation process. After a process lasting barely a month, Lisa was dismissed. She had an appeal hearing but it didn’t change the outcome.
“Something just didn’t sit right with me,” she said. “They claimed there was no recording of the appeal hearing. I didn’t know why that would be, so I went back to Acas and they advised me of how to take Hudson to the Employment Tribunal.”
Lisa tried to find representation, but struggled to find an affordable solicitor with terms and conditions she could agree to. “I didn’t have legal cover in my home insurance. The cheapest solicitor I found was £160 + VAT per hour. I was made an offer by a No Win No Fee solicitor, but I saw in the small print that I’d be liable for the costs if they needed to chase the other side for any money. Knowing my former employer, I thought that even if I won, I wouldn’t see a penny from them, so I wasn’t willing to take that risk.”
Realising she was going to have to act as a ‘Litigant in Person’, representing herself, Lisa started to prepare her case. “The case took over my life. My partner was doing just as much work as me. We were staying up until the early hours of the morning. I used to have to rig the scanner up in the kitchen because I could only scan one page at a time, so I had to do it while I was cooking dinner. It was never-ending.”
This image – Lisa scanning her documents one by one in the kitchen while making dinner for her family – is striking. Any solicitor, or even a company representing itself, would have access to a scanner that could scan multiple documents at once, and there would probably be staff whose paid time could be spent scanning documents for the court. Hudson had instructed a reputable solicitors’ firm experienced in representing employers, who would be used to creating and handling bundles. By contrast, Lisa had to balance this unpaid work with domestic tasks and looking for a new job. (When taking a claim to the Employment Tribunal, claimants are expected to “mitigate risk” by looking for paid work; you can’t simply sit and wait for an outcome and expect to be paid compensation for the months – or years – it takes to get to court.)
From beginning to end, Lisa’s case took 16 months, from September 2020 until early this year. During this time, Lisa was suffering from mental and physical health problems exacerbated by her dismissal, struggling to find other work during the lockdown as a ‘clinically vulnerable’ person, and home-schooling her daughter. To make it worse, Lisa had reason to believe that staff at her old workplace were told not to speak to her, which was very upsetting.
“The case took forever. My former employer’s solicitor was so obstructive through the whole process as well. I see now from other people’s experiences that it was par for the course. They missed deadlines, and there were loads of technological problems sending things over to the solicitor. It was so messy.”
Lisa worked hard to prepare herself for each stage of the case, but without representation, it was difficult to understand what was expected of her.
“I didn’t realise that the first case management hearing was only an hour. Because I didn’t know what I was expecting, I prepared a whole bundle, but the judge had to tell me to only answer questions when asked. The time I’d spent preparing was a complete waste of time. Before the preliminary hearing, I was physically sick because I didn’t know what to expect. It felt like they were saying to me: ‘You’re in our playground, you’re playing our game, so you’re going to have to get up to speed with the rules as fast as you can.’”
In all, Lisa attended 4 hearings, some via conference call and one in person. I asked her whether she felt supported as a Litigant in Person.
“A couple of the judges in the case management hearings were not supportive. One was very rude. Another judge said I’d gone as far as I could go and I needed to get legal representation. I did try, but I couldn’t get any. I tried to ring the Tribunal for advice. They just kept telling me they weren’t able to give advice.”
However, there were some helpful individuals here and there. “The judge I had on the preliminary hearing, Judge Bright, was really kind from the beginning, and really fair. She reminded the other side that I was unrepresented.”
It was hard work, but eventually Lisa proved what she needed to prove for the Tribunal: that the dismissal had been unfair, largely because of the poorly carried-out consultation.
“When I received the judgment, I was physically shaking. I couldn’t even take in what the judge was saying. My partner had to tell me I’d won. I burst into tears. But then I went through a grieving process. You have an elation about justice being served, but then the old feelings return: frustration, upset, anger. I couldn’t believe my employer would treat me that way. Right to the bitter end, they were still trying to defend it. They got me to a point where I just felt useless – and that made me question myself in other ways.”
After this hearing, Lisa was told to go away with her former employer and work out a satisfactory compromise on compensation. “They offered me the maximum amount of compensation but only on the grounds that I didn’t talk about it, didn’t share my judgment. So I decided to go back to court to resolve it. Now I can talk about it and I still won.” Finally, Lisa won £8,087 in compensation, but she maintains the principle was always more important than the money.
After the case ended, Lisa wanted to tell her story to help other people in her position. She also had several ideas about what needs to change in employment law to improve practices around redundancy.
“There should be a lot more restrictions on voluntary redundancies that employers have to follow. As a Litigant in Person, it was very difficult to establish even what the company’s processes were meant to be. Prevention is definitely better than cure – more regulations are needed to ensure there is time for people to get help and advice.”
“There need to be harsher penalties if they don’t follow rules as well. Companies can walk away and pick up where they left off, but for the Claimant, it’s just not that simple. Although I’ve won, I don’t feel like I can move on.”
Despite her difficult experiences, Lisa was keen to end on a positive note. She spoke to me about a Facebook group she’s in that offers peer support to other Litigants in Person – Employment Tribunal Support. Lisa tells me: “It was set up by a gentleman who had been through the Tribunal process himself. I find it really helpful to help others on the forum. I want to turn that negative into something positive.”
Lisa has shared her story with a newspaper, the Scarborough News. Then, she read our coverage of John’s experience as a Litigant in Person, which didn’t end so well. She got in touch with us, hoping that telling her story of successfully taking her former employer to the Employment Tribunal might give people hope in their own cases.
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You can read Lisa’s full Tribunal decision here.
Greater Manchester Law Centre has a free employment service that can give one-off advice to residents of Greater Manchester. If you are outside that area, you may wish to search for your local Law Centre or free advice provider. If you are a Litigant in Person, Central England Law Centres have produced this useful guide to walk you through the process: https://www.centralenglandlc.org.uk/how-do-i-represent-myself-at-an-employment-tribunal
There is also a guide available from the Judiciary here: https://www.judiciary.uk/publications/handbook-litigants-person-civil-221013/
