Personal injury claim for work stress

[stealthtax]

Can anyone please tell me how to get the wheels in motion to do this, i dont want a solicitor or anybody else involved, i am capable myself but there does not seem to be any guidance anywhere online - all i can find is "get a solicitor!"
Also i ended the employment in 2013, the CAB (who were useless) told me i had 6 years to claim, now i'm reading that its only 3 years?
I never took the employer to a tribunal because i was so ill (all from the severe work stress, bullying and harrassment) and its only now 4 years on that i am partly capable of doing anything like making a claim. I'll probably never work again because of it, and am only 42 years old. For the record i did work 20 years full time before all this, and i worked for the "stress" employer for 3 and a half years. He changed the company name 4 times during that period, to avoid "continuity of employment" and redundancy payments to other staff. In the end i left of my own accord, but it was constructive dismissal.
I have got detailed notes of all the harrassment and stress which i made while i still worked for the fascist!

[Sangie595]

Re: Personal injury claim for work stress

Give it up. Detailed notes that you wrote without any evidence and witnesses, and three years later? That is a case going absolutely nowhere. You won't win - save yourself the solicitors fees and the court fees. Even if you could overturn the three year deadline (and yes, it is three years) you could not possibly do so without a solicitor, and you simply can't win here. You could end up owing all your former employers costs too. If you are still so ill as a result that you cannot work, then you absolutely cannot fight a case like this, even with a solicitor. You don't know how hard it will be, but whatever you experienced at work will probably not be as bad. And on your own - it could destroy you if you are that fragile. For your own sake, walk away. It is in the past - leave it there.

[stealthtax]

Re: Personal injury claim for work stress

I realise my chances are slim but i would just like to drag him through the courts because i know how much it will annoy him, if the court fees are not too high i'd like to do it to wind him up and cause him negative publicity.
I was seeing an employment specialist and a therapist through MIND at the time, who will have detailed notes on my case. But MIND were not direct witNesses so this info may be useless? I did have doctors sick notes at the time stating "work stress" aswell. all the ex-employees he made redundant would be happy to be witnesses.
I do have alot of dirt on him which i could use as a bargaining tool, with documentary evidence, such as how he fraudulently avoided the redundancy payments of 25 staff, and how he paid £12k (each) to hinself and his P.A. when one of his companies went bust (a "pheonix" liquidation) when neither of them were actually made redundant.
Also he carried on using his banned company trading name for another year after going bust.
Would this help?

[Sangie595]

Re: Personal injury claim for work stress

I realise my chances are slim but i would just like to drag him through the courts because i know how much it will annoy him, if the court fees are not too high i'd like to do it to wind him up and cause him negative publicity Your chances are not slim. They are non-existent. Taking a case to court knowing that you have no case, purely to annoy and harass - and be clear, you have just said that you intend to do this as a form of harassment and out of revenge - is vexatious litigation, and there are significant penalties for it. And there will be no publicity - papers do not care a jot about what happens in small firms (or most large ones) 99.9999% of the time. If they did, there would be no room for other news. And the court costs are always too high. Mounting a case will cost £0,000's, in court costs and witness evidence. Plus the former employers fees and costs when you fail.

I was seeing an employment specialist and a therapist through MIND at the time, who will have detailed notes on my case. But MIND were not direct witNesses so this info may be useless?Neither were direct witnesses unless they were physically in the workplace the whole time. This is not evidence of anything other than what you told them. People can lie. Crazy people can be delusional, and there is plenty of evidence that you are mentally unstable. And if you didn't like that last statement - and I don't see why you should - it was there for a purpose. That sentence is the thin edge of the wedge as to what their legal team is going to say about you. And not just say about you - they will rip you to shreds in every communication, and on the witness stand (if you ever get that far, which I doubt). They will paint you every variety of crazy there is. They will demand your medical records and lay them bare. Repeatedly. For no other reason than (a) they can and (b) they intend to mount a defence that you are incapable of being rational and therefore everything you say is a lie. And at some point in this process, if just the experience of work that you could have walked away from at any time broke you, they will break you again. That is what legal proceedings like this do to people. That is what they will do to you.

I did have doctors sick notes at the time stating "work stress" aswell.Irrelevant. Not worth the paper they are written on. He or she witnessed nothing. They took you at your word without any verification or evidence. See above - lying or crazy...

all the ex-employees he made redundant would be happy to be witnesses.Almost certainly not. People don't want to get dragged into court cases, and they don't want to be part of other peoples vendetta's. But even if they did - disgruntled ex-employees with an axe to grind are worthless. That is all they are, that is all you are. And not a single one of them is medically trained, so they have no ability to support any claim of personal injury. The issue is not about whether the employer was nice to you are not - it is about whether that caused your mental health problems, and they cannot witness to that.

I do have alot of dirt on him which i could use as a bargaining tool, This is called blackmail - it is illegal. You can go to prison for it.

with documentary evidence, such as how he fraudulently avoided the redundancy payments of 25 staff, and how he paid £12k (each) to hinself and his P.A. when one of his companies went bust (a "pheonix" liquidation) when neither of them were actually made redundant. You haven't provided with a lot of detail, but it's enough - so what. He did nothing unlawful or illegal. This sort of thing happens all the time. It shouldn't, but it does - and there is nothing legally wrong with it. This is not, legally fraud, or anything else.
Also he carried on using his banned company trading name for another year after going bust. There is no such thing as a "banned company name".
Would this help?No, it wouldn't. Unless you mean would it help to get you into a very precarious position in which you may end up on the end of criminal charges?

There is one other "small" problem that you haven't considered. The employer doesn't exist any more. You have said it was a limited company (nobody else can "phoenix"). The company is the employer, not the person. You have nobody to take to court.

I am going to be as clear about this as I can be. This is history. Leave it there. Any attempt to pursue this will result in you putting yourself at serious risk - financially, health-wise, or both. Probably both. If you really are "well enough" right now to be able to withstand one month of this - and it will drag on for years and years, because personal injury claims always do - then you are fit enough to work. In which case your best revenge is to get on with your life and dig yourself out of the position you are in. Be a success.