Am I entitled to legal representation at a disciplinary hearing?

There is no straight forward answer to this question. Generally speaking, up until recently, it was the usual practice of most employers not to allow legal representation of employees in a disciplinary hearing. However, a recent Court of Appeal case made it clear that in some circumstances employees should be legally represented during a disciplinary hearing depending on the possible consequences of the disciplinary hearing to the employee. In the case of G, R (on the application of) v X School and ors [2010] EWCA Civ 1, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the High Court regarding a teaching assistant who was alleged to have had inappropriate contact with a student. The teacher was entitled to legal representation at a disciplinary hearing on the grounds that it would have a strong influence on the decision of the Independent Safeguarding Authority as to whether he should be placed on the list of persons barred from working with children.

Employees should therefore always be advised to make a request for legal representation even if they believe that the request to be represented during the disciplinary hearing will not be granted. This at least will give them the option to later on appeal the disciplinary decision of their employer on the ground of ‘unfair hearing’ should the hearing result in adverse consequences to them.

The request to have legal representation during a disciplinary hearing is also important from a strategic point of view as it indicates to the employer that the employee might not simply accept the outcome of the disciplinary hearing but might take matters further if the disciplinary decision is to result in adverse consequences to the employee.