You may recall that earlier this month we raised the fact that section 147(5) of the Equalities Act 2010 may mean that if a lawyer has represented an employee in a claim under the Act, he or she may not be able to advise on a compromise agreement settling that claim.
The Government Equalities Office has now issued guidance now saying that that s147 does not prevent the complainant’s legal representative from acting as the qualified adviser for the purpose of a compromise agreement. They say ‘It is not a proper reading of the section to suggest that the complainant's adviser is debarred from being the qualified adviser, because the section has to be read as a whole’ and that ‘It only prohibits a person who is acting for another party to the complaint or the compromise contract, or a person connected with that other party, from being an independent adviser.’
The GEO may believe the section to be clear, but it could have been drafted a lot better. The GEO’s guidance will be influential though when Tribunals come to interpret the provision.
James Carmody
RECULVER SOLICITORS
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