The Fair Employment Tribunal (Rules of Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

Applications in proceedings

10.—(1) At any stage of the proceedings a party may apply for an order to be issued, varied or revoked or for a case management discussion or pre-hearing review to be held.

(2) An application for an order must be made not less than 10 days before the date of the hearing at which it is to be considered (if any) unless it is not reasonably practicable to do so, or the chairman or tribunal considers it in the interests of justice that shorter notice be allowed. The application must (unless a chairman orders otherwise) be in writing to the Office of the Tribunals and include the case number for the proceedings and the reasons for the request. If the application is for a case management discussion or a pre-hearing review to be held, it must identify any orders sought.

(3) An application for an order must include an explanation of how the order would assist the tribunal or chairman in dealing with the proceedings efficiently and fairly.

(4) Where a party is legally represented in relation to the application (except where the application is for a witness order described in rule 9(2)(c) only), that party or his representative must, at the same time as the application is sent to the Office of the Tribunals provide all other parties with the following information in writing –

(a) details of the application and the reasons why it is sought;

(b) notification that any objection to the application must be sent to the Office of the Tribunals within 7 days of receiving the application, or before the date of the hearing (whichever date is the earlier); and

(c) that any objection to the application must be copied to both the Office of the Tribunals and all other parties,

and the party or his representative must confirm in writing to the Office of the Tribunals that this rule has been complied with.

(5) Where a party is not legally represented in relation to the application, the Secretary shall inform all other parties of the matters listed in paragraph (4)(a) to (c).

(6) A chairman may refuse a party’s application and if he does so the Secretary shall inform the parties in writing of such refusal unless the application is refused at a hearing.