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Tribunals and "illegible" claim forms- 12/07/2010
In the recent case of May v Greenwich Council, Mr May presented his claim form at the Tribunal on the last available date of the 3 month period, but in his apparent haste of completing the form it contained some writing which was small and difficult to read. The Employment Tribunal rejected the claim on the ground that the claim form was illegible, effectively leaving the claim time-barred.
Mr May appealed the decision to reject the claim and the Employment Appeals Tribunal (“EAT”) found that the Tribunal was wrong to refuse to accept the claim. Instead the appropriate action should have been to require Mr May to provide a more readable copy within a defined period, and if necessary to impose sanctions on his failure to do so.
Impact
This is a quirky case which highlights the Tribunal’s underlying desire to hear claims where they are submitted within time. The extent to which the Tribunal should be prepared to go to read poorly written text in claim forms was highlighted when the EAT commented that a document was only illegible if it is not capable of being read without the need to use a magnifying glass. We won’t therefore be surprised to hear if Tribunal Judges are to be issued with mandatory magnifying glasses..!