An EAT decision published today has upheld a decision made in our local Employment Tribunal in Leicester allowing a Claimant an extension of time to bring his unfair dismissal claim because it was not reasonably practicable for him to claim within the usual 3 month time limit from the date of his dismissal.

In this case the Claimant had appealed against his dismissal and had been given the appeal decision orally within the 3 month time limit.  The oral decision led him to believe that it would have been hopeless to bring an unfair dismissal claim.  However, the written appeal decision, received outside the 3 month time limit, did not mirror the oral decision and the Claimant decided that a claim would not be hopeless after all. 

In these circumstances the Employment Tribunal held that receipt of the written decision genuinely changed the Claimant’s view of his potential claim and that therefore it was not reasonably practicable for him to have brought the claim in time and granted him an extension of time.  The EAT upheld the decision.