Judge not impressed
A solicitor apprentice has had her employment claim dismissed after displaying “complete and utter disregard” for the tribunal and her former law firm.
Forzana Khanom, who filed the claim against London-based firm Mishcon de Reya, consistently disregarded the employment tribunal’s orders in a manner described by the judge as “persistent, long-lasting, and egregious”. She also failed to comply with orders on multiple occasions and neglected to provide evidence to support her claim.
Khanom wrote to the tribunal to give her reasons for not complying, partly blaming her former solicitors, her ill health and technical problems with her laptop.
However, the tribunal remained unconvinced, labelling this reasoning as “wholly unpersuasive and insufficient.”
The tipping point appears to have come when the tribunal canceled a final hearing due to Khanom’s “total failure to engage” with her case, replacing it with a three-hour case management session.
Despite this, the aspiring solicitor failed to attend the virtual hearing, emailing the tribunal at 9:35 am, just 25 minutes before the session was due to begin. She stated that she was unable to join “because she was at the airport about to board a flight for a family trip abroad to celebrate her birthday”.
The apprentice said, as noted by the tribunal, that she had instructed her former lawyers that she would be unavailable for the entire week when the hearing was scheduled. However, she still received communications from the tribunal leading up to the set date.
Dismissing the claim in Khanom’s absence, Judge Klimov said:
“The claimant showed a complete and utter disregard to the Tribunal’s process. She caused the respondent to incur substantial and unnecessary costs, and all that due to her failure to engage with her own claim. She took a wholly disproportionate time from the limited Tribunal’s resources, with at least six Employment Judges having to deal with her case at various stages. At the same time, she barely exerted any effort herself to progress her case. Due to the claimant’s unreasonable conduct and complete disregard of the Tribunal’s orders, the case is no further forward than where it was in August 2023.”
The judge also noted the impact of the final hearing, vacated at short notice, on both Mishcon, and other applicants “who have to wait longer for their cases to be heard”.
Judge Klimov added: “The claimant is an apprentice-solicitor. It appears she aspires to join this profession. Therefore, she who would (or at any rate — should) be aware of the importance to follow due legal process, and how she should conduct herself towards her opponent and the Tribunal. Her conduct of this case demonstrates the opposite of what could be expected of someone in her position.”
Mischon will be seeking a costs order, the judgment states.
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