Witness Statements, Cast Lists and Chronologies

Witness Statements

Each person who gives evidence at the Employment Tribunal will have to produce a written Witness Statement. That includes you as the Claimant, and any witnesses you may have who are willing and able to confirm your allegations against your employer to the Employment Tribunal.

Each witness’s evidence should be fully set out in a written statement, which will be “exchanged” with the Respondent shortly (often a few weeks) before the final hearing. Normally, the Claimant will confirm with the other side a date and time when they are ready to exchange statements at the same time – you don’t want to give the employer an advantage by sending yours over first.

The statement should normally be written in chronological (date) order, and should be clearly structured, with sub-headings where helpful, to make it easy for the Employment Judge to follow.

It is best to type the statement, with numbered paragraphs and sub-headings, and line spacing, and make sure you keep a saved copy on a computer.

If it refers to documents in the Bundle for the hearing, the page number from the bundle should be given in brackets, so the Tribunal can cross-refer between the documents. Your statement should highlight the key moments in your story, and refer to the supporting documentation you rely upon, e.g. “On 1 January 2022 I received an email from Ms Smith, Director of HR, stating that I was being invited to a meeting to discuss my performance (See Page 50 of the Bundle)”.

If a legal representative writes the statement, s/he should make sure the witness agrees with the contents. The witness must understand that the statement is their evidence; they must check their statement is accurate, and they will have to sign ‘the statement of truth’ at the end.

The Claimant’s statement should be consistent with what they have said in the Claim Form (ET1) and any documents written at the time. If this is not possible, an explanation will be needed, as it undermines the credibility of the witness to be giving contradictory information.

Statements may need to be read out at the hearing. Make sure they are in short easy-to-read sentences. More often, however, the witness will not be required to read out the statement, and the Tribunal Judge and members will read it themselves at the start of the hearing, and move straight to questions on the statement.

You might find it helpful to look at a sample witness statement, although this sample is for example only and is shorter than a typical statement. A Claimant’s witness statement in a case of normal length could easily be between 3,000 to 6,000 words.

It is important to focus on the key issues. For example, in a discrimination case, you will need to focus on each alleged act of discrimination, and on the way the Claimant was treated differently to other workers, and the evidence supporting this. Tribunals expect all the evidence to be in the witness statements apart from anything new coming out of the witness statements from the other side.

The structure of the Witness Statement is up to you, but it can be a good idea to start off by giving background about you, your role within the employer’s company/organisation, when you joined, and anything you wish to add about your career and what your particular job involves/involved.

You can then move on to the main section, which will be about what happened leading up to your decision to commence your legal claim. This should be set out in chronological order, addressing any evidence you have, and noting key dates.

If you are unsure of an exact date, you can say, “On or around …” and then put your best estimate of the correct date.

It is a good idea to use headings within your statement, so that the Tribunal can navigate your statement easily, e.g. “Background”, “First Act of Sex Discrimination”, or “Performance Management Meeting on 10 January 2023”.

The final part of the statement should address your current situation, e.g. if you lost your job, you should set out what you are doing now, and if you have secured alternative employment, details of when you got the job, and how much it pays etc, noting if it is less than you received in your previous role.

If you forget to include important evidence in your witness statement, you can’t normally simply give that evidence on the day of your final hearing when you’re answering questions. If you do this, the other side or the Employment Judge is likely to notice, and may stop you from giving that evidence, and ask for an explanation as to why you did not include it in your original witness statement.

Sometimes a supplemental witness statement is needed. This will be the case where new issues have come up during the proceedings. If this happens the tribunal may need to order a new statement to be written and shared with the other side by a particular date.

On the date of the final hearing, each side should bring 5 extra copies of each of their own witness statements for the Tribunal panel, the witness box, and a spare. (The witness statement does not form part of the ‘bundle’ for the hearing).

Chronology and Cast List

Tribunals often like to be given a Chronology at the hearing, setting out the key events with dates. This can help them to understand your case, and it saves them time or potential confusion later on.

They often also will ask for a Cast List, which is a list of the people involved in the events on which your claim is based. It is usually helpful to set out not only names but the roles of these individuals, and who they are/were employed by, e.g. “Ms Smith, Director of Human Resources, Company A”.

It is common to agree the content of the Chronology and Cast List with the Respondent. You might find it helpful to look at a sample chronology.

This advice applies in England and Wales. If you live in another part of the UK, the law may differ. Although there are a single set of rules which govern the whole of Great Britain covering Tribunal practice and procedure, there are differences in the way that Scottish tribunals exercise their discretion regarding procedure. For guides, information and resources about employment tribunals in Scotland, see The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service.  If you are in Northern Ireland you can visit the Labour Relations Agency or call their helpline Workplace Information Service on 03300 555 300.

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