“…a failure (if that it be) by the Employment Tribunal in this case to flag up or raise the question of whether or not the Appellant was seeking to make out a case that if the Employment Tribunal found that she was a worker within section 230(3) of the 1996 Act she was also making a claim for compensation for making a protected disclosure under section 47B of the same Act does not give rise to an error of law. To hold otherwise would be to put an intolerable duty upon an Employment Tribunal.”
‘57. … Mr Lemas represented himself and, like any litigant in person, he enjoyed a degree of autonomy as to the manner in which he conducted his case. Trying cases in which a party is representing himself can be amongst the more difficult judicial tasks. Judges should be, and are, properly sensitive to the disadvantages that such litigants face; and will ordinarily do their best to ensure that the unrepresented litigant has a proper opportunity to present his case fully. This may, for example, require the granting of adjournments in circumstances in which no like adjournment would be granted to a represented litigant. It may require a degree of indulgence during the litigant's examination of witnesses. It may require the Judge to take a firm line in keeping the litigant to the relevant issues. 57. There are, however, limits to what a Judge can and should do in order to assist such a litigant. It is for the litigant himself to decide what case to make and how to make it, and what evidence to adduce and how to adduce it. It is not for the Judge to give directions or advice on such matters. It is not his function to step into the arena on the litigant’s side and to help him to make his case….’ 31. Those observations were made in the context of a challenge to a decision of a Circuit Judge but I consider that essentially similar considerations apply to Employment Judges. It is not their role to engage in the sort of inquisitorial function that Mr Hopkin suggests or, therefore, to engage in an investigation as to whether further evidence might be available to one of the parties which, if adduced, might enable him to make a better case. Their function is to hear the case the parties choose to put before them, make findings as to the facts and to decide the case in accordance with the law. The suggestion that, in the present case, the Employment Judge committed some error of law in failing to engage in the sort of inquiry that Mr Hopkin suggested is, in my judgment, inconsistent with the limits of the role of such Judges as explained by this court in Mensah v East Hertfordshire NHS Trust[1998] EWCA Civ 954 ;[1998] IRLR 531 (see paragraphs [14] to [22] and the cases there cited by Peter Gibson LJ). Of course an Employment Judge, like any other Judge, must satisfy himself as to the law that he must apply to the instant case; and if he assesses that he has received insufficient help on it from those in front of him, he may well be required to do his own homework. But it is not his function to step into the factual and evidential arena. 32. I would not therefore accept Mr Hopkin’s submission that the Employment Judge failed to perform some supposed duty to help Mr Muschett to unearth and advance all facts that might have been available to him to aid his case. In any event, Mr Hopkin gave us no indication of what those further facts might have been. Mr Muschett did of course give oral evidence and for all I know he may in doing so have expanded on the contents of his written evidence. As, however, we have no note of that evidence, we have no idea what it was.”. ‘57. … Mr Lemas represented himself and, like any litigant in person, he enjoyed a degree of autonomy as to the manner in which he conducted his case. Trying cases in which a party is representing himself can be amongst the more difficult judicial tasks. Judges should be, and are, properly sensitive to the disadvantages that such litigants face; and will ordinarily do their best to ensure that the unrepresented litigant has a proper opportunity to present his case fully. This may, for example, require the granting of adjournments in circumstances in which no like adjournment would be granted to a represented litigant. It may require a degree of indulgence during the litigant's examination of witnesses. It may require the Judge to take a firm line in keeping the litigant to the relevant issues. 57. There are, however, limits to what a Judge can and should do in order to assist such a litigant. It is for the litigant himself to decide what case to make and how to make it, and what evidence to adduce and how to adduce it. It is not for the Judge to give directions or advice on such matters. It is not his function to step into the arena on the litigant’s side and to help him to make his case….’
“ The Appellant applied to the ET for a review of its decision (see paragraph 33 below), which was refused on7 December 2011 . On28 March 2012 the Employment Appeal Tribunal (“EAT”) (The Hon Mrs Justice Slade) granted the Appellant permission to appeal against the original decision of the ET. The EAT gave its judgment on13 February 2013 , dismissing the appeal. Permission to appeal that decision was refused on the papers, first by the EAT itself and then by a single Lord Justice. At a renewed oral hearing on3 December 2013 Lord Justice Elias granted permission on the following ground: “whether having regard in particular to the overriding objective and the fact that neither the claimant nor his representative were legally qualified, the Employment Tribunal erred in law in failing to take adequate steps to ensure that the claimant had taken a properly considered decision to withdraw the claim.”