If a company intends to defend a tribunal claim, it needs to begin gathering the evidence to support its case as soon as possible. If the claim is one of discrimination, the company may also need to respond to a questionnaire that the employee has sent (questionnaires ).
Written statements should be taken from those who were involved in the case. Your Association can assist in this. The information in these statements will help in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the company's case and in identifying who will need to be called as a witness at the tribunal hearing. The tribunal is likely to order that the claimant and the respondent should, in advance of the hearing, exchange copies of the statements of the witnesses they intend to ask to give evidence at the hearing. The tribunal has the power, on its own initiative or on the application of one of the parties, to order a person to come to the hearing to give evidence, if that person has relevant evidence to give and would not attend the tribunal hearing voluntarily.
Documentary evidence may also need to be collected. In an unfair dismissal claim arising from a disciplinary dismissal, for example, the relevant documents are likely to include any letter sent to the employee inviting him or her to a meeting under the statutory minimum dismissal procedure, the notes of disciplinary and appeal hearings, a copy of the company's disciplinary rules and procedure, and copies of any written warnings. The employment tribunal is likely to ask the parties to agree, in advance of the hearing, the contents of a single bundle of the documents they wish to refer to at the hearing. The tribunal can also order one party to disclose and provide copies of relevant documents to the other party.