Guest post: Very bad news for an advisory group
Originally a comment by learie on Damages, including aggravated damages.
It was so brave of Ms.Bailey to do this, and I’m so glad she’s won.
The Employment Tribunal usually awards a max of 5000 pounds, and they awarded her 22 000, including aggravated damages.
I have already seen TRAs saying it’s not much money, but if Ms.Bailey had wanted money she wouldn’t have done this. The point was to set a precedent and to expose what’s going on with Stonewall- and that’s been done very effectively.
Companies and legal bodies now know Stonewall gives advice that will see you losing at the Employment Tribunal. That is very bad news for an advisory group.
I don’t know how they’re drawing the conclusion that it’s not a lot of money, when it’s more than four times the usual award granted by such tribunals.
And I agree with your conclusion that this makes the idea of sticking with Stonewall’s scheming rather a hot potato. No-one likes the idea that they are going to be held solely responsible for carrying out policy based on legal advice received from a third party which turned out to be false. They probably thought that the advice was sound; or by acting on it they would be able to point the finger of blame at, or at the very least have some kind of support from, Stonewall.