Delay of judgements

Case 6: The facts

This was a joint hearing of appeals in four cases where tribunals had taken a long time (141/2 months in one case) to send out their decisions. The question was whether this had deprived the losing parties of a fair trial.

The ruling

The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a tribunal's judgement should be delivered within three-and-a-half months in all but the most complex and lengthy judgements - but that, if there is a delay, the decision should not automatically be set aside and the case sent for re-hearing. For the decision to be set aside, the losing party must show that there has been a material error or omission due to faulty recollection as a result of the delay.

Three of the four cases, which all involved delays of over seven months, were sent for re-hearing.

Kwamin v Abbey National [2004] IRLR 516