Solicitor ordered to pay £8,700 costs for late employment tribunal claim withdrawal

A solicitor has been ordered to pay £8,718 costs to a firm for which he worked as a consultant after an employment judge found an 'unreasonable' delay in withdrawing his claim.  

David Ahern, admitted in 1999, had brought an employment tribunal claim against Burys Solicitors Limited for unpaid notice, a failure to pay holiday pay and unauthorised deductions from wages. Ahern claimed he had been a worker and an employee for the purposes of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The firm said Ahern had been engaged as a self-employed consultant solicitor.

The firm also argued Ahern’s claims were lodged out of time. Ahern lodged the claim in December 2023 and withdrew it on 8 May 2024, two days before the preliminary hearing was listed, to pursue a county court claim. The firm made an application for costs.

Employment judge Childe, sitting in Manchester Employment Tribunal, found Ahern’s claims had been brought out of time and had no reasonable prospects of success.

He said: ‘The claimant plainly knew of his legal rights and knew of or ought to have been aware of the time limits in this case. There was no good reason that the claimant could not have submitted his claim in time.’  The judge said it ‘would have been obvious’ by the end of March 2024 that Ahern’s claims had no reasonable prospects of success.

He added: ‘If the claimant wished to withdraw them to allow him to pursue those claims in the county court where the time limits are more generous, he should have done so by the end of March 2024 at the latest.’

The judge said: ‘The claimant is a legally qualified solicitor who I find could carry out research on the internet into time limits in the employment tribunal. In my judgment, it would have taken a very brief piece of research on the internet for the claimant to understand that the claim was out of time. The fact that the claimant did not withdraw his claim until 6 May 2024, over two months after I find it was reasonable for him to do so, is in my judgment unreasonable conduct of litigation.’

Ahern was ordered to pay £8,718 to the firm by 26 January 2025.

David Ahern appeared for himself and Annette Gumbs appeared for Burys Solicitors Limited.

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