Law regulations in the UK

Research, however, shows that the CBI's recent claim that the employment tribunal system is clogged with weak claims does not appear to be substantiated. In the last year 71% of costs orders have been made against employers.

However, the new Regulations do have the ability to deter weak claimants and most employers will have been on the end of a purely speculative claim seeking only a nuisance payment. These sorts of claims ought to be subject to such Legal Aid in Divorce sanctions. The Tribunal does also have stronger case management powers than before and should, now, ensure that such claims are not permitted to succeed long before the need for a claim for costs at the end of a trial.

We shall have to wait and see how the Tribunals deal with such weak claims and whether they use their powers fully. Tribunals have always had the power to deal with weak claims by calling a hearing. However, this power has been rarely used, probably more as a result of heavy case lists and lack of time and resources to do so. These much more interventionist Procedural Rules do now give Tribunals a much easier way to deal with any such claims and it will be interesting to see what number of claims fall to be dealt with in this way.