When should junior court proceedings be stayed in favour of the High Court, asks Felicia Epstein
There are two sets of civil proceedings between the same parties, one in the High Court and the other in a more junior civil court or tribunal. In what circumstances should the more junior court stay the case before it in favour of the High Court proceedings? And should it take a different approach if High Court proceedings have been threatened but not yet issued? These questions have been considered by the same Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) judge in two different cases.
Mindimaxnox
In Mindimaxnox LLP v Gover & Ho (2010) UKEAT/0225/DA, [2011] All ER (D) 146 (May), HHJ McMullen QC explored the factors which an employment tribunal should consider when deciding whether to stay the employment tribunal proceedings in favour of proceedings between the same parties in the High Court. His conclusions may be summarised in six principles:
(i) It is not the case that simply because there are complex factual matters the employment tribunal’s jurisdiction is thereby usurped: employment tribunals today deal with
