At the Tribunal | |
Before
MR RECORDER LANGSTAFF QC
LORD DAVIES OF COITY CBE
MRS R A VICKERS
APPELLANT | |
RESPONDENT |
Transcript of Proceedings
JUDGMENT
PRELIMINARY HEARING EX PARTE
For the Appellant | MR KEITH BRYANT (of Counsel) Appearing under the Employment Law Appeal Advice Scheme |
MR RECORDER LANGSTAFF QC
"In any event if the Applicant failed in his complaint it is the Tribunal's experience that local authorities in those circumstances often feel it is a duty on them to ask for costs against the Applicant, that should also be taken into consideration."
What, he submits to us, is that there is an impression which may be formed either from the words taken as a whole or from particular parts of them (he had in mind what he had described as a costs warning) which would indicate that in this case there was such a predisposition as to make the proceedings unfair against the Appellant.
"Furthermore it was clear that the Applicant's view of what had been said with regard to costs was accepted by Mr Jones [his counsel] as inaccurate and obviously that view, had it been true, would have been a clear indication of potential bias on behalf of the Tribunal."
There has been nothing in the Notice of Appeal nor in the affidavit which gives us any clearer view of what the Applicant had said through Mr Jones to the Chairman and which counsel on his behalf then accepted as inaccurate. We think it unlikely to have been that which is in italics, both because of the view we have taken of the italicised paragraph but also because, that, we are told, comes from counsel's notebook and had he thought that the Chairman had indeed made remarks which did indicate a settled intention, for instance, to penalise the Applicant in costs if he went ahead, then that would have been reflected in the recording and indeed in his submissions at the time. We cannot think that he would have accepted the Applicant's view, if that had been the view, as inaccurate at the time. We do not think therefore that it is helpful to explore further what was accepted on the Applicant's behalf as an inaccurate view and about which there has been no subsequent complaint.