EMAIL TRAILS: VERY EXPENSIVE THINGS

Fixed Recoverable Costs Extension: Autumn Course Details

Details of the courses are here, and can be booked here.

In Issue 159 – COSTS OF £20,000 AGAINST BARRISTERS’ CHAMBERS IN EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL

I looked at

Bailey -v- Stonewall Equality Ltd, Garden Court Chambers & others, Case No.: 2202172/2022

where the Employment Tribunal ordered Garden Court Chambers to pay £20,000 costs in relation to its unreasonable conduct in preparing the trial bundles for a discrimination case brought by one of its own barristers.

However, the Employment Tribunal also found as one of its reasons for ordering costs the presence of email chains saying:

“Email chains are often problematic – it is best to eliminate duplication, but this cannot always be achieved where it is necessary to show who is sending an email in reply to what, and in what sequence, especially where there are branching emails, and not everyone has sight of other replies. Pragmatic solutions have to be found.”

“35. Much later it became clear that much of the puzzle over missing emails was because Garden Court had severed (“chopped up”) strings of emails to show separate emails in chronological order, and then pasted them in a single thousand page PDF. It was only when this was uploaded to a shared drive on 16 March that the claimant was able to see that, and that it did not include what was, in their view, relevant material.”

Well said.

The judgment also contains a detailed analysis of the case law in relation to the grounds for awarding costs in the Employment Tribunal.