The Employment Appeal Tribunal Amendment Rules 2023 have been made and will come into effect as of 30 September 2023. These Amendment Rules change the Employment Appeal Tribunal Rules 1993 and include reducing the number of documents that you are required to send when you appeal to the EAT. They also give the EAT discretion to extend appeal deadlines and give the EAT discretion to extend the appeal deadline where an appellant has made a minor error in respect of filing the correct documents.
These Amendment Rules amend the current Employment Appeal Tribunal Rules (1993) by reducing the number of documents required to be submitted with the Notice of Appeal. A Notice of Appeal is required to institute an appeal correctly. In respect of an appeal from an employment tribunal judgment the appellant will no longer need to include the employment tribunal claim and response.
The Amendment Rules also provide the EAT with discretion to extend time limits for the submission of an appeal where minor errors have been made in filing the appeal on the basis that the error has been rectified and the EAT thinks it is just to extend time in the circumstances. These circumstances include the manner in which, and the timing of when the error was rectified taking into account any prejudice to the Respondent.
The EAT forms will also change (Schedule 1 to the EAT Rules) to reflect the change to the required documents when filing an appeal, the contact information that needs to be provided to the EAT and also to remind the parties to read and comply with any relevant Practice Direction and the overriding objective. There are other minor changes and these will take effect as of 30 September 2023. As ever you should either take legal advice when embarking on an appeal or carefully consult the rules to ensure your appeal has every chance of success.
This blog was written by Elizabeth McGlone, Partner at didlaw.
