Tom’s Essential Guide To Creating Your List Of Documents

Creating your list of documents is an important part of the Employment Tribunal process. However, if your list is not put together with the proper care and attention, it may only serve to exasperate the other side and the tribunal judge/judging panel. This is the last thing you want to do if you want to maximise your chances of a successful outcome to your claim.

Reading through this guide will help you understand what will be expected of you. It will help you compile a list of documents that clearly presents the information from which the tribunal will make judgement of your claim.

Why you need a list of documents

Your list of documents relates to what is known as the ‘disclosure and inspection’ phase of the tribunal process. You will need to produce a list of documents in response to the Employment Tribunal judge’s directions. Your list will clearly set out and accompany all the papers that relate to your claim.

Just as you are required to produce this, so are the other side. Basically, this process guarantees that when your case is heard at tribunal, each party is arguing their position from the exact same bundle of documents.

Such documents should be relatively easy for you to pull together, but there may be others that will take you a little more time. Any specific documents that you wish to rely on but don’t have access to, you should request in writing from your employer. You should stipulate that you expect them to be shared and included in the trial bundle.

What if your employer fails to comply with your request? You should then make a written application to the tribunal seeking an order from the court for them to pass on these documents to you. Make sure to cc your employer onto this written application.

Keep your list of documents clear and concise

Once you have compiled all the paperwork relevant to your case you should review it to ensure every document is appropriate and relevant.

Then place these in chronological order in a lever arch file and start to index them so that they are easy to analyse.

You should look to ascribe dates and a brief description to each document you index.

Take the time to give careful consideration to your collection of documents, ensuring you have not omitted anything material to your case or included anything that could be deemed not pertinent.

Paginating your list of documents

This task will most likely fall to the respondent, as they are typically considered better placed to carry out this element of administration. However, as you have now pulled together and indexed your list, you may wish to give some thought to paginating it yourself.

Adding additional documentation after your bundle has been agreed will undoubtedly irritate the other side, but as long as you can show a good reason as to why it was not included earlier, the tribunal should allow it’s inclusion.

As outlined in my ‘essential guide to drafting your witness statement‘ your paginated bundle will be cross referenced to the detail you have supplied when drafting it.

Below is a typical example of a list of documents that you may find useful when putting yours together.

If you want assistance in drafting your list of documents

If you need help, one of our solicitors would be happy to assist you for a fixed fee charge of £500 – £1,000+VAT. It is worth keeping in mind however, that if we feel you have a viable case, we could support you through all aspects of the tribunal process on a no win no fee basis.

You can read more about our no win no fee policy, or speak to one of our approachable and knowledgable team on 0203 838 0781. Alternatively, you may prefer to forward your details to us 24/7 via our simple online enquiry form.

Once we receive your information, you can expect to hear from us within 48 hours by phone, email or text.