Please sign letter by whistleblower to Shabana Mahmood

Two years ago some 317 people agreed to sign a letter to Sir Keith Lindblom, senior president of the tribunals, calling for transcripts and recordings of employment tribunal cases to be made available.

Employment tribunals appeared to be one of the few legal proceedings where records were not kept and claimants and whistleblowers – often appearing as a litigant in person – were put at a big disadvantage against big corporate companies, NHS trusts, powerful public bodies like Sellafield, who employed expensive barristers, often using taxpayer’s money, to discredit employees and whistleblowers bringing cases against them.

The companies and public bodies could afford – unlike a litigant in person – to employ notetakers or paralegals – so they had their own records – so if a person appealed against a tribunal verdict – he or she was at a big disadvantage.

Within just seven days we had backing from well over 300 people – from a former economic adviser to No Ten Downing Street, Sir Adam Ridley, 80 medical consultants, numerous GPs, nurses, teachers, to a former deputy groundsman at the Chelsea Pensioners hospital, a lorry driver, an actor, writer and a poet. This suggests there is a wide ranging feeling that there is something wrong in the justice system.

Barry Clarke, the head of the employment tribunals in England, responded to the letter by announcing, where possible, employment tribunal proceedings would be recorded, so they would be transcripts of the proceeding.

But now two years later this has proved to be a Pyrrhic victory – hence the need for a fresh letter. It has also reached an impasse with the top judges in the employment tribunal digging their heels in to prevent further change. Thus only an appeal to the Lord Chancellor can remove this obstacle.

What has happened is that where tribunals have recorded proceedings, obtaining a transcript, if a judge allows it, costs thousands of pounds, well beyond the means of most claimants.

Where there is no recording the only record of proceedings is the judge’s notes. Judges have jealously guarded releasing this to the public – but it is the only record a judge covering an appeal in the case will see.

First it took a considerable time for the judiciary to concede this was the official record – arguing it was a private and personal note. Now Barry Clarke has conceded this is an official record of the case but does not want this released to the claimant, the public or the press. This hardly fits with the image that Britain’s legal system is proud of its reputation for ” open justice.”

Alison McDermott, a whistleblower who challenged Sellafield over its toxic culture towards its employees, has drafted a letter to go to the Lord Chancellor. You can read her blog and the text of the letter here . All you have to do is text Yes to Alison if you want to sign.

Last time the strength of feeling of the need for change was very high. My blog on the campaign is here. It also lists the 317 who signed. This time Alison is not planning to publish all the names.