Employment

Lorraine has covered all aspects of Employment law including all forms of discrimination (Disability, age and sex and race), redundancy (including collective consultation), collective agreements, equal pay, TUPE, trade union activities and whistle blowing (not exhaustive). Lorraine has been in practice in the employment field for over 10 years in both respondent and claimant work. In that time Lorraine has worked for and continues to work for national companies, charities, local authorities, trade unions and individual claimants (including multi party claimants). Lorraine has a particular interest in Disability discrimination having dealt with complex disability claims spanning several years and involving the use of expert witnesses.

As a result of her experience Lorraine is required by her clients to travel all over the UK in order to represent their needs at the various Tribunal centres which provides her clients with a useful insight into the trends of decisions in the various centres.
Lorraine has experience in drafting compromise agreements, contracts of employment and the various documents required for Tribunal proceedings (ET1, ET3, Scott Schedules, Consent Orders, Further and betters, skeleton arguments, Grounds of appeal to EAT, review applications and witness statements) as well as regularly providing written opinions and conference advice (facilities include video link).

Lorraine has the experience necessary to draft schedules of loss and counter schedules and calculate financial loss including pension calculations.

Lorraine lectures professional and lay clients in the employment field. Recent topics include Disability Discrimination, Employment Update and Illegal workers.

Lorraine is happy to attend with lay clients at mediation meetings.

Membership

Lorraine is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and as an Immigration Tribunal Judge is a member of the National Association of Women Judges.

Recent Employment cases

Liverpool Employment Tribunal (January 2012)
Acting on behalf of a respondent Health Trust in an on-going unfair dismissal claim involving health care professional’s statutory and regulatory requirements.
Manchester Employment Tribunal (December 2011)
Acting on behalf of a respondent Health Trust in a continuing 18 day claim for disability discrimination involving complicated procedural matters and significant witness evidence.
Leicester Employment Tribunal (November 2011)
Acting on behalf of the respondent Bus company in a claim of unfair dismissal in a redundancy situation. The Tribunal found the claimant had been fairly dismissed.
Liverpool Employment Tribunal September 2011
Acting on behalf of respondents in a claim for unfair dismissal in a retirement situation. The respondents had not used the correct wording in the written notice of retirement. The Tribunal found the claimant had been unfairly dismissed.
Cardiff Employment Tribunal (May 2011)
Acting on behalf of the respondents a Police authority in a claim for disability discrimination. The matter was not determined by the Tribunal.
Manchester Employment Tribunal (March 2011)
Acting on behalf of the respondents in a factually complex claim of unfair dismissal of the Managing Director. The Tribunal found the claimant had been fairly dismissed.
Sheffield Employment Tribunal (February 2011)
Acting on behalf of the claimant in a claim for unfair dismissal in a claimed redundancy situation. The Tribunal found the claimant had been unfairly dismissed.

Professional Negligence Profile

Lorraine is a former solicitor who was called to the Bar in 1997. Lorraine works closely with solicitors, insurers and experts to ensure that professional negligence litigation is efficiently pursued from the start. This breath of working relationship means that Lorraine understands not only the legal challenges facing those that bring professional negligence claims but also the commercial challenges facing firms who act on behalf of claimants against professionals.
Lorraine has worked with financial experts and this has given her a good grasp of the regulatory duties on financial professional as well as the difficult task of untangling the relationships between multiple defendants and quantifying loss.
As a former solicitor Lorraine understands the practical and regulatory requirements on firms and solicitors as individuals and this provides an insight into the inappropriate practices within the legal profession.
Lorraine is involved in a volume of “Right to Buy” claims, and financial Mis-Selling claims against Brokers and lenders on behalf of claimants. Lorraine has dealt with mortgage repossession resulting from financial negligence.
Lorraine lectures on professional negligence and her recent lectures include “The Right to Buy” and “Causation in professional negligence claims”.
Lorraine is happy to travel and through chambers can offer video conferencing facilities.

Commercial

Lorraine has a recent but expanding interest in contract disputes (commercial and employment related), credit disputes under the Consumer Credit Act 2006, Mortgage, loan and Insurance mis-selling (MCOB, ICOB, COB breaches) and general repossession work. Lorraine provides advice on matters under the Sale of Goods Act, she is also happy to provide CPD training to instructing solicitors and their lay clients.