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Employment law brief: 14 October 2022

14 October 2022 / Ian Smith
Issue: 7998 / Categories: Features , Employment , Privilege
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Can documents retrospectively acquire legal professional privilege? Not without a time machine, says Ian Smith in this month’s brief
  • Early conciliation certificates in multiple cases.
  • Legal professional privilege—no retrospective effect.
  • Reconsideration of judgments and default by a representative.
  • Possible bias by an Employment Appeal Tribunal side member.

Employment case law in the last month has concentrated largely on matters of procedure, rather than substance. The first two cases show that, in fields as intensively ploughed as these, very particular points can still arise for determination at appellate level. They concern applying the early conciliation rules to multiple cases, and whether legal professional privilege can ever apply retrospectively to documents which as initially produced were not privileged. The third and fourth cases concern fairly well-established rules (on reconsideration of judgments and possible bias by a side member) but provide particularly interesting examples, with the odd twist.

Early conciliation certificates

The judgment in Clark and Others v Sainsburys Supermarkets Ltd and Another [2022] EAT 143 starts by expressing

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

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Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

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Brabners—Ben Lamb

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Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

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From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
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Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
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