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External investigations

15 August 2019 / John Bowers KC
Issue: 7853 / Categories: Features , Employment
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John Bowers QC sets out some ground rules for conducting a successful investigation

  • Clarify precisely the scope of the investigation you are undertaking before you start it.

Many lawyers are being asked to lead investigations into employment issues, often of sexual harassment allegations. These investigations, of course, come in all shapes and sizes and raise very different issues. I concentrate here on employment investigations but even they may involve regulatory or governance issues as well as strict employment points. A later article will deal with privilege issues.

Sometimes it will be a lawyer alone investigating, at other times (s)he will be assisted by others. Some will be formal, others informal. Some will be public sector, others private. Some may be provided for by statute, such as designated independent person investigations which used to be required before senior council officers were suspended or dismissed in England and Wales and now survive only in the latter. Most will be set up in an ad hoc manner. In some cases there will be recognised parties (the complainant

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Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
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Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
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