Employment tribunal judgments now available online

The Ministry of Justice has launched a website where all Employment Tribunal judgments can be accessed.  Judgments from as far back as 2015 have been uploaded and from now on, all judgments will be available online.

The website was created following criticism about poor access to Employment Tribunal decisions; civil court judgments are available as of right and Employment Appeal Tribunal judgments have been available online for a number of years.  The new website brings Employment Tribunal judgments in line with other judgments and satisfies the interests of open justice.

However, increased accessibility may come at a cost!  

Anyone can search the MOJ website using the name of an employer, an employee, the employment judge or member or representative.  The risk of adverse publicity, especially via social media, may persuade employers to settle a case before a judgement is made and published.  In particular, employers may not wish to be associated with a case where discriminatory or sensitive allegations have been made, or where there is a risk that confidential commercial information may be referred to in the judgment.  Employers may also fear that where full written reasons are not provided the judgment would provide only a partial view of how the tribunal reached its decision and therefore may reflect poorly on their organisation. 

Employers will also be able to search the database to establish if an employee has made tribunal claims in the past; a factor that could be taken into consideration at the recruitment stage.

As online distribution of tribunal decisions increases, employment judges may become concerned about their findings being published on social media platforms.  With that risk in mind, judges may be cautious of what they say, especially when making a finding regarding the credibility of witnesses – in other words, whether they were a truthful witness or not!

We wait to see what transpires, but open justice could turn out to be a double-edged sword.