Answer 4 - Access To Justice Flashcards
Whats the definition of access to justice?
The ability of people to seek and obtain a remedy through formal or informal institutions of justice for grievances
Paragraphs
Discuss access to justice in relation to employment law and available institutions
Fees regime
R v Lord Chancellor and period after
What is access to justice in an employment law context?
Where an employee feels they have been unfairly dismissed or the employer has breached a contractual obligation
What are the available institutions for dealing with grievances?
Advisory, conciliation and arbitration service (ACAS) set out in 1974
Employment tribunals
What are the functions of ACAS?
To provide advice, whether over the phone or at a training event
Main function is individual conciliation where they bring the disputed parties together with a view to facilitating an agreement
Arbitration where an arbitrator makes a decision to settle the dispute of the two parties (not binding but normally followed)
Mediation developed due to rarity of arbitration, half way between arbitration an conciliation, parties make own decision but arbitrator makes recommendations
What are employment tribunals?
An independent judicial body established to resolve disputes between employers and employees
What is the development of the composition of employment tribunals?
Used to be a judge and 2 lay members. Due to high caseload TURERA 1993 introduced a power for employment judge to sit alone - since became the norm. Means the decision making process is less thorough and opens possibility of judge abusing discretion (limits a to j)
What impact did the initial introduction of employment tribunals have on access to justice?
Was a big help due to its cost and time efficiency
What was the effect of the fees regime when it was introduced in july 2013?
Hugely limited access to justice and caused great controversy due to how substantial the fees were
What was the price of an average unfair dismissal case?
£1200
What was the general consensus on the introduction of fees?
The general consensus is that these fees were introduced to deter claimants from bringing cases, supported by the fact that there were 70% less claims in 2014/15 than in previous year. This is due to people who have recently lost their job struggling for money etc - huge limit on access to justice
Whats the most important development on access to justice in employment law?
The decision of R(UNISON) v Lord Chancellor
What was the decision in R(UNISON) v Lord chancellor?
That the fees regime was unlawful from the start so was therefore abolished
What impact did the decision of R(unison) v Lord Chancellor have on access to justice in employment law?
Vastly improved access to justice, shown by following statistics
From July to September 2017 single claims increased 64% compared to the previous year
They have continued rising and have even got as high as 165% between april and june 2018 which is the highest increase over the last 5 years
