Applications to postpone or adjourn a hearing under the ET Rules 2024, including on medical grounds, and the separate question under rule 47 of whether a tribunal should dismiss a claim or proceed in a party's absence. Teinaz v London Borough of Wandsworth; Roberts v Skelmersdale College; Cooke v Glenrose Fish Co.
Tribunal procedure; postponement; ill health. On an application to postpone — even one supported by unchallenged medical evidence — the tribunal must assess fairness to both sides and the public interest in the efficient conduct of litigation as a whole: fairness to the absent party is not decisive, and refusal can be lawful notwithstanding genuine inability to attend. Appellate interference with such case-management decisions is limited to error-of-principle grounds; the EAT may not simply re-ask whether the refusal was unfair.
Cited by
References found in the judgments’ text, with the number of paragraphs in which each case is mentioned. Not a classification: how a case was treated is recorded under Later history.
Procedure; postponements; refusal to adjourn. The Court of Appeal (Underhill V-P and Lewison LJ) upheld the refusal to adjourn a preliminary hearing on disability status: the decisions could not be characterised as perverse where the claimant had had enough time to prepare, and it was common ground that in cases of this kind the tribunal will usually decide on contemporaneous medical material rather than a commissioned report. Postponement is a case management discretion and appellate interference is limited.
Cites
References found in the judgments’ text, with the number of paragraphs in which each case is mentioned. Not a classification: how a case was treated is recorded under Later history.
Procedure; medical evidence; the EAT underscored that Tribunals must engage with medical evidence 'with care' (Para 68). While postponement/expedition applications are highly fact-specific, specific medical evidence remains crucial for ensuring Article 6 rights and making reasonable adjustments to the hearing process. [Summary not yet checked against the judgment.]