Practice Directions – presentation of claims, responses and statutory appeals
Mark Lewis, HMCTS service manager, has asked that the following message be circulated to the members of the national user groups for the Employment Tribunals in England, Wales and Scotland. It concerns the imminent Practice Directions from the two ET Presidents about the presentation of claims, responses and statutory appeals, which (among other matters) will preclude respondents from submitting ET3 response forms by email save in exceptional circumstances. The recent message on this topic confirmed that there had been some slippage in the approval process and it is now expected that promulgation of the Practice Direction will take place sometime in February.
The two Presidents, Judge Clarke and Judge Walker, wish to remind users that, until the new Practice Direction takes effect, the existing Practice Directions on presentation of claims (here and here) and the interim joint Practice Direction on the presentation of responses (here) continue to apply. Furthermore, they ask users to note that, once the new Practice Direction is promulgated, it will not come into force for a period of about five weeks. The Presidents have proposed this short grace period as a final opportunity for any professional representatives, yet to do so, to sign up to the MyHMCTS service.