Lawyer wins £400k from the DWP

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51620990

 

I was reading about this case and its a sad story that this still happens and that experienced managers are unable to follow procedure. What will the DWP do to the people involved? 

 

The judgement is worth a read, seems the claimant worked for the CPS as a case work, was a trainee solicitor and worked as an Executive Director for a US oil company

 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5c1d07cc40f0b66ce09143f1/Miss_Anne_Giwa-Amu_v_Department_for_Work_and_Pensions_-_1600465.2017_-_Judgment.pdf

I appreciate that they treated her abominably but £400k!

She was only there 5 weeks.

How can injured feeling possibly justify more damages than, say, a lost limb?

Only c.£42k was injury to feelings (I say only but that is top whack).

The rest was about 60% loss of earnings / 40% grossing up to tax account that the award is all taxable after the first £30k.

Ive seen a few Absolutely frightening ET decisions recently. Employment Judges are a law unto themselves and its unsurprising that most of them aren’t great when very few have actually been prominent practitioners. You’re more likely (in the regions anyway) to come before a crime or family barrister, or a commercial solicitor. 

More telling is the fact she brought her claim in May 2017, the Judgment wasn't handed down until December 2018 even though the hearing was in May 2018, and she's just had the remedies hearing which awarded her the cash.

The Tribunal system is totally and utterly fookED

The Judge - Laura Howden-Evans - taught the Legal Practice Course at Cardiff University before moving to Swansea University in 2006, where she is module leader for employment law and practice.

She is now a business manager at a school. 

The delays are completely unjust. ParticulRly so for Claimants who are likely to have suffered financial loss and will be emotionally invested. Also for Respondents though who increasingly find that their witnesses have left their employment by the time that the hearing comes round.

I had a claim against a client issued in November, listed for a 1-hour telephone PH mid-July 2020. Literally saying that the first hour in a regional judge’s diary was 7-8 months away. Had the Claimant not settled for peanuts, we would have quite possibly ended up with a 2022 hearing by the time we had further particulars and response, further PH and then a 5-day hearing listed with woeful availability of wing members.