Two weeks ago the Supreme Court (the highest court in the UK) ended the employment tribunal fees regime with immediate effect: the update we produced at the time is here.

In the immediate aftermath, the Justice Minster, Dominic Raab, announced that the government would stop taking fees immediately, and begin the process of reimbursing all fees paid since 29 July 2013 (estimated to be around £32 million).

Speculation has since then turned to considering whether people, who were deterred from bringing claims because of the fees regime, or who had their claims struck out because they did not pay their fees, may be able to bring their claims out of time or reinstate them.

Perhaps in reaction to this speculation, or potentially in response to applications and claims being made, a Case Management Order has now been made by the Employment Tribunals which stays (i.e. puts on hold) all claims and applications which rely on the fact that the employment tribunal fees regime was unlawful until a decision has been made by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) about how to handle them.

Whilst it is not clear exactly which claims and applications this relates to, it appears that this is a blanket approach to all claims and applications made by individuals to whom the speculation referred to above relates – i.e. people whose claims were struck out for not paying their fees, or who are arguing that they should be able to put claims in now out of time because they were previously deterred by the fees regime.

We will know more once the MOJ and HMCTS make their decision in relation to how to handle the applications and claims to which they are referring.

The practical impact for the time being appears to be that if an employee or former employee attempts to bring a claim against their employer out of time, and argues that the only reason that they did not bring it in time is due to the fees regime, or tries to reinstate a claim that was struck out because they did not pay their fees, that claim will automatically be put on hold until the MOJ and HMCTS decide how to deal with such claims.

Please click on the links below for the case management orders:

England & Wales

Scotland

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