My experience
I deal with all aspects of the employment and working relationship with a particular focus on:
- director and senior employee exits (advising both employers and employees);
- restrictive covenant and breach of confidentiality actions;
- discrimination complaints;
- whistleblowing complaints;
- complex and high value settlement agreements;
- Mediation;
- employment tribunal claims and advocacy;
- working issues relating to people who are not employees (self-employed, partners, consultants, LLP members); and
- training on employment law issues.
As well as pure employment law issues I regularly get involved in:
- confidentiality and restrictive covenant actions in the High Court, often in conjunction with our Dispute Resolution team;
- shareholder/director disputes;
- partnership disputes.
I am a qualified ADR Mediator and have been involved in numerous high value mediations.
I am known for coming up with creative solutions to legal issues and will often be engaged by clients to formulate exit strategies or where a second opinion is being sought.
I will provide practical and no-nonsense options for the resolution of issues in the working relationship.
As an advocate I have appeared in employment tribunals all over the country including in wales and Scotland.
I am a regular speaker at employment law conferences and have appeared on television and radio commenting on topical employment law issues.
Insights from David Roath
Articles
Podcasts
The Employment Tribunal: What happens on the day - Part 2
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The Employment Tribunal: What happens on the day - Part 2
Welcome to part two of our two-part series on Employment Tribunals. In this podcast Employment experts Clive Dobbin, David Roath and Tabytha Cunningham answer your key questions about what happens on the day of a Tribunal. They chat through everything from how to give a witness statement to what to wear.
For more information on how our team can help you: https://parissmith.co.uk/your-business/employment-law/tribunal-representation/
Show notes
00:50
What is the set up for a typical Employment hearing?
David talks about how processes been pushed forward by the pandemic and what are the options for a virtual hearing. Do you get a choice which option you can have?
02:50
What should you know before the hearing to prepare? Tabytha explains what technology you should test if you are remote and some tips for making this process seamless.
If you have an in-person hearing, what happens when you arrive and who will be there? Be prepared for lots of waiting around.
04:25
What preliminary matters will there be on the day? Tabytha talks through how this works and what is common.
05:10
Who decides the outcome of a case? This depends totally on the claim. Simple cases like unfair dismissal will be heard by one Judge In more complex cases like discrimination, there will be a panel of three people. Our experts explain how to they work together to decide and who has the final say.
07:35
Giving evidence - how is this done and how should you address the Judge?
Our experts also explain how are different people are addressed and the common terms you might hear such as ‘claimant’, what you should wear, what to bring with you, where to stand when giving evidence and what swearing an oath means in practice.
09:45
What happens at cross examination? This is when the other side will ask questions about your witness statement. Our experts give some tips about what to expect and how to answer.
11:40
Our Employment team give top tips for preparing to be a witness and discuss the importance of the witness statements.
The key is that you should remind yourself what is said in the statement before the hearing as they often written a long time before the hearing.
13:40
Submitting additional documents – what is the process when you want to submit extra information?
15:35
Cross examination can be nerve-wracking. Our team give tips for giving evidence and cross examination, and cover the importance of preparation and overcoming nerves
20:35
Coming to a decision – what is the process and how long does this take?
21:50
What happens if you are unhappy with the decision and what are the grounds for appeal?
Videos
Data Subject Access Requests - 5 Top Tips for Employers
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Data Subject Access Requests - 5 Top Tips for Employers
