Thanks Becky. I appreciate your kind words, and your assistance throughout. I feel as though there's been a grave injustice, but then I would, wouldn't I!? I feel that, as a lay person, I was almost bullied by the respondent's representative and not given a chance to really respond to questioning or ask my own. The judge kept rushing me. I think the way the respondent's people behaved throughout was pretty deplorable, but maybe that's their job. Becky, in your experience, do I just wait now and let them get in touch with me to arrange payment? Are most people open to monthly payments? I won't be able to pay in one-go.

A little bump.... Also, is it possible to appeal against a costs award, but not the decision overall? I respect the decision, as mentioned above, even though I think it was wrong. But I think a costs award is wrong, becuase I didn't act unreasonably at any point in the hearing.

Thanks Ibruk. To be honest, throughout the hearing I felt fairly good about how I handled myself and my interrogation at the hands of the respondent's bulldog of a lawyer. The judge seems to agree, actually. Things went very wrong when it came to remedy etc. I initially didn't seek financial remedy. I wanted re-instatement and/or my employee discount returned. About a week before the hearing the respondent's people got back to me and said "please send updates schedule of loss (etc)". Basically, I felt a bit pressured into providing something and so used average/guesstimate figures on my statement of loss BUT ALSO INCLUDED a copy of my bank statement showing the payments into my bank, in salary, which showed the correct figures. So I don't understand how they can think I was trying to mislead them, when I always provided the bank statement showing the accurate figures. Like, the employer I went to after leaving the company was paying me, say £2,000.00 a month. I put on my SoL that they were paying me £1,700.00 a month. But the respondent was paying me an average of £2,000.00 a month but I put down that they were paying me £1,700.00 so in effect, while the figures were wrong, they weren't showing a level of loss that didn't exist. So the respondent's solicitors will make contact with me? Is it normal to pay in installments? Am I free to write to the CEO/Chairman at the respondent now? I used to speak to them fairly regularly and would like to appeal to their better nature and ask them to overrule the decision to go after costs. Is this appropriate?

Hi guys, Hope this message finds you all well. I apologise for the lack of communication since my hearing. I didn't want to think about it, talk about it, remember it or have any feeling about it until such time as a decision had been reached, as the judgement was reserved. I'd been stressed for months because of it, and was enjoying the break from it. I didn't want to appear as though I'd taken your generous advice and done a runner, but I didn't want to be consumed by the hearing after it had finished. Anyway, I shall shortly post a full review of my two days in 'court' so others know what to expect, but the long and short of it is that I lost my case and have had £3,175.00 in costs awarded against me. This mostly seems due to my updated statement of loss, provided hastily a couple of days before the hearing, being wrong. I used average figures as opposed to exact figures and ultimately everything matched up, but the judge seems to think I was trying to mislead her, which was absolutely false. The respondent noticed the discrepancies and clamped down on them, relentlessly pressuring the judge to find that I had been trying to mislead. So can anyone tell me what happens next? How do I pay? The judge said that because I was in employment I have the means to pay - that's true - but certainly CERTAINLY not all in one go, and CERTAINLY not by sizeable installments. What's the deal here? How do they get their money? I want to pay them - I let the judge decide and I respect her decision, even though I obviously disagree with it - but I worry about how they will get their money. Thanks so much again. KoF

Cheers guys. I'm headed down south so am in my hotel now. It'll give me a chance to concentrate on the bundle a bit more and work out any last minute questions I want to ask..... My god I hope I win. Even if I only get £1.00, I want them to admit that they were wrong to sack me. And if they thought I brought the company's name into disrepute before, just wait until this is all over! Haha! Can I just confirm again, if I'm asked a question by the respondent, will it be addressed to me or to the panel? And do I respond to "sir/madam" on the panel or to the respondent? I know I'll get to chat over this briefly with the tribunal people, too.

Sorry. Did I say Tue? I meant Thur. How's things? Any idea if I'm alowed a laptop into the hearing?

Four days to go.....

They haven't said that I can't amend mine specificall, but our agreement was that we WOULDN'T amend them unless the amendments were related to new information recieved as a result of my SDO. As no documentation was provided relating to my request, I presumed that no changes would be made to the statements. I want to play by the rules in the hope that they are seen to be bending them and it goes against them. As it happens, they added a number of pages about other things, including internal procedures etc., and amended their statements to discuss these new pages. I don't find it disheartening, I find it a fu*king joke. They know they're not allowed to do it, and I'll fight them on the day. I'm having to prepare two sets of questions, two sets of bundle references etc. I am going to re-do bits of my own statement to refer to the RELATED information we got today, but it's too late to get it to them before the hearing, owing to the bank holiday. So I will prepare it and talk to the Tribunal next week and explain that they've submitted a raft of information at the very last minute, despite my request for such information having been in for over a month. I'll request that my new statement be admitted as it is in compliance with our agreement, but will do all I can to make sure their new statement is not admitted, or that if it is, they get into some both for not playing by the rules.

That's very interesting. The guy I've been speaking to has said that he'd spoken to his barrister about something related to the case. So that goes to suggest it's possible that this fella might not be there at all and the barrister will be the one doing the bullsh*tting?! Interesting, thanks.

Hi guys, I cannot believe I've not come across this previously, but this is some of the most informative stuff I've read about how a Tribunal hearing works. It's an absolute MUST to read, I'd say. http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/work_e/work_problems_at_work_e/work_employment_tribunals_e/employment_tribunal_hearings.htm#what_happens_when_i_arrive_at_the_employment_tribunal

Guys, who am I going to be "fighting with" on the day? The associate who has been communicating with me throughout the process, or someone else? A barrister or something? Cheers

Good question, and one I'd love the answer to. They added some pages to the bundle and have changed their statements to refer to them. I also added two pages one the same day as they made their additions, but I didn't update my statement because we had agreed not to - more fool me! So I want to refer to these pages. Guess I'll do so when I cross examine, which I think Ibruk alluded to in the above thread.

I like the thought of going for my own fees, lol, but I'd be happy with a win, some compensation, my employee discounts back or at the very least, not getting costs awarded against me. I like to think they way they've conducted themselves will work in my favour.

It's weird, mate, all this agreeing to the bundle stuff. That hasn't been done in my case. All that's happened is they've sent me a bundle and said "here it is". Nothing about whether I'm happy with it etc....

Was going to ask the same, K. Additionally, I've tried searching for similar cases and have struggled to find anything. I'll keep looking. Thankfully, I believe all the information exchanges between myself and the respondent have finished so it's now just down to preparing myself for the actual defense on the day(s). I know there have been lots of posts over the past few days - my apologies for that - because of the flood of information coming through from the respondent, so if I may, here's a list of (what I hope to be) final questions. If anyone can help with them, I'd be eternally grateful. a) Can the respondent add to their witness statements at the last minute (c. one week before hearing) in spite of my opposition to this happening? b) Can I refer to newly added documents to the bundle, despite them not being mentioned in my witness statement as they were added after the statements were finalised? c) Can I refer to emails between the respondent and myself, relating to my request for documentation and to our agreement that our statements would ONLY be updated to allow for addition of information directly related to these submissions and can I, as a result, oppose the use of the new statements? d) When and how do I do this? e) Do I need an opening and closing statement prepared in advance, or should atleast the closing statement only be prepared once I've heard the respondent's representations? I think that's it for now, guys. Thanks a million again. It's almost over, so it'll be less questions and more answers by the end of next week