Strange but true

The retirement has just been announced of Chris Tickle, who was the Bristol regional employment judge. Our paths first crossed years ago in a strike dismissal case involving a halal butchery in Birmingham, I acted for the claimants, he represented the employers in the tribunal. We settled in the end, but not before wicked allegations were made that, when busy, the butchers would pop round to Tesco to buy dead birds to pass off as true halal meat.

The appointment of Mr Tickle was inspired for he was at the forefront of active case management and I was in awe of what he did. His approach pre-dated Jackson by a decade. A good man, he was not to be fooled with. A standard direction he sensibly issued was to limit the number of documents in the tribunal bundle, typically to 50 pages a party. Those who foolishly ignored this explicit direction would receive a phone call from the great man: “Listen, this is me ripping pages