Case Study: Successfully Achieving Compensation for Sexual Harassment at Judicial Mediation
How Laura Donnelly, expert Employment Law solicitor based in our Brighton office, represented a client at Judicial Mediation and achieved a successful settlement for her sexual harassment claim.
The situation
Joanna was employed as an Administrative Assistant at a fashion company. She had been sexually harassed by one of the Directors. She complained to the other Directors but was unsupported. Her mental health suffered as a result and she went on long term sick leave.
Joanna used a lay representative to help her raise a grievance and included various other complaints including disability discrimination and whistleblowing detriment. She went on to issue a lengthy Employment Tribunal claim without qualified legal representation.
Joanna was unhappy with the way her lay representative was conducting her case. The Tribunal had arranged a Judicial Mediation and Joanna came to us to help assist with this.
What Martin Searle Solicitors did
We reviewed her case and provided our initial assessment on the various claims issued at the Tribunal. Unfortunately, the lay representative had over complicated the case by adding in various claims that either had limited prospects or added minimal value. We advised that she needed to concentrate on the main complaint of sexual harassment which was the crux of the issue. This was the cause of the sick leave and injury to feelings suffered.
Joanna had limited funds and was unable to afford full representation for progressing the case further. This included an imminent Preliminary Hearing to decide if she was disabled within the meaning of the Equality Act for the purpose of the disability discrimination element of her claim, one of the weaker claims.
We suggested that we concentrate on helping her with the preparation and representation for the Judicial Mediation in order to help her achieve a settlement. We concentrated on the stronger sexual harassment aspect of the case, checked and updated the Schedule of Loss and agreed a plan for settlement negotiations and parameters.
The result
Joanna attended our offices with her husband to participate in the one day Judicial Mediation. This took place via video hearing with an Employment Judge acting as the mediator.
Joanna was not required to see her opponent on screen. We spent the day discussing the case with the Judge and going back and forth with settlement offers.
By the end of the day we agreed to a compensation figure of £30,000 for injury to feelings (an upper middle band Vento award) in addition to other contractual payments.
This enabled Joanna to move on with guaranteed compensation and avoided the stress and cost of going to a full Employment Tribunal Hearing as costs are rarely awarded on top of compensation.
For expert advice on Judicial Mediation and Discrimination Law please contact our Employment Law Team on 01273 609911, or email info@ms-solicitors.co.uk.
