{"id":2608,"date":"2021-02-08T14:48:43","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T14:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elhr.co.uk\/?p=2608"},"modified":"2025-07-28T12:39:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T11:39:04","slug":"can-an-employment-tribunal-be-a-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elhr.co.uk\/?p=2608","title":{"rendered":"Can an Employment Tribunal be a Court?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Can an Employment Tribunal be a Court?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I<strong>n <em>Irwell Insurance v Watson [2021] i<\/em>t was held an Employment Tribunal (ET) could be a Court. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This is a case where determination of an insurer&#8217;s liability to pay out under an insurance policy questioned the jurisdiction of an ET to be able to make this decision.\u00a0 The Court of Appeal held an ET was a Court for the remit of this purpose.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Mr Watson made a claim against his employer, Hemingway who became insolvent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Due to the insolvent employer having insurance through Irwell against claims in the employment tribunal, Mr Watson applied for them to be added as a party <em>within the meaning of s2(6) <\/em>in the tribunal under the <em>Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010 <\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and did not accept the argument that the ET&#8217;s lack of enforcement powers is a reason why it should not be considered a &#8220;court&#8221; within s2(6).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The court also rejected the notion that Parliament could not have intended ETs to deal with questions in relation to insurance law. ETs regularly have to deal with difficult questions of law across a variety of topics, not just confined to employment law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Bean LJ decided the employment tribunal was a court for these purposes saying:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><em>&#8220;It is plain that&#8230;the 2010 Act was&#8230;[to avoid] the need for a third party such as Mr Watson to have to issue two sets of proceedings&#8230;If [the Employment Tribunal is not a] &#8220;court&#8221;&#8230;the &#8220;one-stop shop&#8221; service which the 2010 Act creates for claimants bringing &#8230;claims within the jurisdiction of the civil courts&#8230;is not available to claimants raising causes of action within the exclusive jurisdiction of the ETs.&#8221;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The Court of Appeal also decided an arbitration clause in any policy applying to claims under the <em>Employment Rights Act 1996<\/em> and <em>Equality Act 2010<\/em> is void when liability would, or may be transferred to the employee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Experts,\u00a0 ELHR Ltd. are happy to assist, <a href=\"https:\/\/elhr.co.uk\/contact-us-elhr-rugby-elhr-warwickshire-elhr-northampton-elhr-daventry-elhr-stratford-upon-avon-elhr-coventry\/\">fill in our contact form<\/a> for a free initial consultation should you require further\u00a0 assistance.\u00a0 Please call us now on 01788 432077 for an initial free consultation.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/elhr.co.uk\/contact-us-elhr-rugby-elhr-warwickshire-elhr-northampton-elhr-daventry-elhr-stratford-upon-avon-elhr-coventry\/\">Contact Us &#8211; Employment Lawyers &amp; HR Consultants (elhr.co.uk)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">ELHR Ltd. are Employment Law &amp; Human Resources experts who can help you to keep up to date with legislative changes, apply statute and the latest case law precedents to your business.\u00a0 They limit the risk of litigation &amp; help you &amp; your business with best practice to ensure you gain the best you can from your team.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">We&#8217;re your 1 stop for HR &amp; underwrite the employment law risk as long as you follow our advice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">For employees, they are able to undertake a merits assessment to evaluate whether they are likely to succeed in a claim against their employer.\u00a0 ELHR Ltd. can evaluate whether there is a reasonable prospect of success.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>Contact us now for an Initial Free Consultation.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/elhr.co.uk\/contact-us-elhr-rugby-elhr-warwickshire-elhr-northampton-elhr-daventry-elhr-stratford-upon-avon-elhr-coventry\/\">Fill in our online form<\/a>, or call us on 01788 432077.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exploring circumstances where an ET has the same jurisdiction as a Court.  As noted in the case Irwell Insurance Company Ltd v Watson and others [2021] EWCA Civ 117 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[200],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Can an Employment Tribunal be a Court?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yes, as noted in Irwell Insurance v Watson [2021]. EAT decision that the Employment Tribunal is a court within the meaning of s2(6) of the Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 2010\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/elhr.co.uk\/?p=2608\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can an Employment Tribunal be a Court?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yes, as noted in Irwell Insurance v Watson [2021]. EAT decision that the Employment Tribunal is a court within the meaning of s2(6) of the Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 2010\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/elhr.co.uk\/?p=2608\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ELHR \u2013 Employment Law and HR for Rugby and Leicester\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-08T14:48:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-28T11:39:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/elhr.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/court-room_unsplash-scaled-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Manjit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Manjit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/elhr.co.uk\\\/?p=2608#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/elhr.co.uk\\\/?p=2608\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Manjit\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/elhr.co.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d31753b7b22761ee88f198b3cd1f4cf1\"},\"headline\":\"Can an Employment Tribunal be a Court?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-08T14:48:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-28T11:39:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/elhr.co.uk\\\/?p=2608\"},\"wordCount\":500,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/elhr.co.uk\\\/?p=2608#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/elhr.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/02\\\/court-room_unsplash-scaled-2.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/elhr.co.uk\\\/?p=2608#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/elhr.co.uk\\\/?p=2608\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/elhr.co.uk\\\/?p=2608\",\"name\":\"Can an Employment Tribunal be a Court?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/elhr.co.uk\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/elhr.co.uk\\\/?p=2608#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/elhr.co.uk\\\/?p=2608#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/elhr.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/02\\\/court-room_unsplash-scaled-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-08T14:48:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-28T11:39:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/elhr.co.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d31753b7b22761ee88f198b3cd1f4cf1\"},\"description\":\"Yes, as noted in Irwell Insurance v Watson [2021]. 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