My First Blog

It seems to me that even barristers need to bring themselves into the 21st century and today is the day that I make the leap. These are my ramblings on recent employment law issues that I think are important to ordinary people not just lawyers.


One step forwards two steps back.................


I lately found myself questioning where we are going when it comes to disability discrimination. It is now clear that Archibald v Fife Council was probably the high point for the disabled Claimant and since then the law has been in retreat. Two cases this year London Borough of Lewisham v Malcolm & Others and Richmond Adult Community College v McDougall have made it much more difficult for the disabled Claimant to win.


What does this mean for disabled employees and job applicants? I think we will see a reduction in disability claims based on stress/depression and a very substantial fall off in reason relating to disability claims.


Is this a bad thing? In the long run I hope not because the law will be changed and perhaps improved upon to give more comprehensive rights to the disabled. In the meantime there will be many people missing out who previously would have succeed in their claims under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.