Excellent experience start to finish – always very responsive to any queries and the turnaround on the property I was buying was very quick, even in the busy time leading up to stamp duty deadline. Jenny was always very helpful and went above and beyond to close on a short timescale.
Employment tribunal procedure
- Deposit orders. The maximum deposit a tribunal will be able to order a party to pay if their claim has little reasonable prospect of success will increase from £500 to £1,000. The change will affect all cases presented on or after 6 April 2012.
- Costs awards. The maximum amount of costs an employment tribunal can award (without referring the case to the county court for detailed assessment) will increase from £10,000 to £20,000. The change will affect all cases presented on or after 6 April 2012.
- Witness statements. Where witness statements are used, they will stand as evidence in chief and be taken ‘as read’ at the hearing, unless a judge or tribunal directs otherwise. This applies to all cases presented on or after 6 April 2012.
- Witness expenses. State funded witness expenses are to be withdrawn. Tribunals will have the power to direct parties to bear the expenses of any witness. The government will withdraw state-funded expenses. The new power will affect claims presented on or after 6 April 2012.
- Judges to sit alone on unfair dismissal cases. Unfair dismissal cases will be heard by a judge sitting alone without lay members, unless the judge orders otherwise. This will affect all cases heard on or after 6 April 2012. The government have said that progress on this change will be reviewed after a year.