Do tribunals have to clarify their judgement?

[Dominic]

My tribunal was heard by just one judge and in his reasons for finding in favour of my employer he stated the employer had reasonable grounds for certain beliefs held regarding main issues of the case. The judge did not say what those grounds were. I knew my employer was lying about these issues but had no way to prove it other than point out the employer had not submitted any evidence to support what he was saying. As the judge stated there were reasonable grounds, he must know what those grounds are. I have made several request to the judge for him to tell me what those reasonable grounds were but each request has been ignored. The way i see it is if there were reasonable grounds then it would be a simple matter to tell me what they were. As the judge is not willing to do that, I can only assume that there were none and he is just ignoring me and hoping it will all go away.

Does the judge have to clarify his judgement by telling me what those grounds were are can he simply ignore the question?

[Sangie595]

Re: Do tribunals have to clarify their judgement?

No they don't. You have a judgement, and unless you are able to find an error in law in that judgement, there is no right of appeal. But I think you may misinterpret what was said. The judge is not required to determine whether he thinks the grounds were reasonable. He determines whether the employer had reasonable grounds to believe something. That might not sound like a different thing, but it really is a different thing. And reasonable grounds are not the same thing a "truth", whatever that may be. Reasonable grounds, for example, might be that we believed the version another member of staff told us over yours. It could be as simple as that.

But the answer is, anyway, no, the judge doesn't have to explain himself to you.

[Dominic]

Re: Do tribunals have to clarify their judgement?

I know reasonable grounds are not the same as the truth but for the judge to determine the employer had reasonable grounds he must first have to know what those grounds were otherwise the judge has nothing to base his statement on. As the grounds were part of his judgement, i feel he should have stated what they were in the same way he is stating why he found in favour of the employer.

[R0b]

Re: Do tribunals have to clarify their judgement?

Dominic, judges have to give adequate reasons for the decision they have come to but do not need to go into great length or detail. They just need to be sufficient to enable both parties to understand how the judge has come to his decision.

If you are saying the judge had found against you on the basis the employer had 'reasonable grounds' but did not explain what those reasonable grounds were, then that could be considered as inadequate reasons for judgement, because the judge has failed to identify his reasons for the decision. That in itself would be grounds for appeal on the basis the judge has given no explanation as to what those reasonable grounds for which he found in the employer's favour.