Losing respondent should normally refund tribunal fees

Case 7: The facts

In this case, an Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) had to decide whether or not to order the employer to refund some or all of the claimant’s tribunal fees after the appeal succeeded.

The EAT ruled that normally an unsuccessful respondent should refund the claimant’s fees — in this case the £1,600 issue and hearing fees. The claimant, Dr Portnykh, had applied for remission of the fee, but had not yet heard whether the application for remission was successful, so the EAT made its costs order conditional on him not being granted full remission of the fees.

Commentary

This case follows on from the commitment extracted by UNISON in its judicial review challenge to tribunal fees (UNISON v The Lord Chancellor and Anor [2014] EWHC 218 (Admin)), when the government conceded that a successful claimant should normally expect to recover their fees from the respondent in an employment tribunal claim and that a change to the tribunal rules should be made to reflect this.

Portnykh v Nomura International PLC [2013] UKEAT 0448/13/0511

www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2013/0448_13_0511.html