Case study: client wins over £30,000 in Employment Tribunal after successful disability discrimination claim

Summary

How Chris Hadrill successfully represented an employee on a no win no fee basis in an Employment Tribunal disability discrimination claim and won over £30,000 for his client.

Under the Equality Act 2010, employers have a duty to not discriminate against employees because of any disability that the employee possesses. These duties arise under:

• Section 15 Equality Act 2010 – the duty not to discriminate against staff for a reason in consequence of their disability (“discrimination arising from disability”)
• Section 19 Equality Act 2010 – the duty not to indirectly discriminate against staff because of their disability
• Section 20 Equality Act 2010 – the duty to make reasonable adjustments to compensate for an employee’s disability

Further reading: read more about the law on disability discrimination

Situation

Lawrence was employed by a medium-sized publishing company. He had worked for this company intermittently for a period of 20 years and one of his best friends was a director of the company. Lawrence has multiple sclerosis and as a consequence found it difficult to get to work on time in the mornings because of problems with mobility and bowel movements. However, he enjoyed his job and got on well with his friend.

In late 2013 Lawrence was called into the director’s office and was told by his friend that he was being fired because he wasn’t making enough of an effort to get to work on time and that there were serious problems with his punctuality. Lawrence had no notice of this meeting and was shocked by the way in which he was treated. He explained to his friend that the multiple sclerosis was causing his punctuality problems but his friend maintained his decision to dismiss Lawrence.

What we did

Redmans represented Lawrence on a no win no fee basis in his claim (under a “Damage-Based Agreement”), with Chris Hadrill acting as the lead solicitor in the claim. Chris advised Lawrence on all aspects of his claim and represented him at the Employment Tribunal in a 4-day hearing. The Respondent conceded their case on the first day of the hearing after Chris had explained to the Employment Judge that the Respondent had not hope of defending their case.

The result

Chris secured compensation of over £30,000 for Lawrence on a ‘no win no fee’ agreement, which meant that if Lawrence had not won his claims then Redmans would have been paid nothing by him.

Call 020 3397 3603 or contact us if you want to talk to Redmans about an Employment Tribunal claim