Aftermath of being wrongly dismissed!

[daveparry]

So I was unfairly dismissed, took company to tribunal and was persuaded by friends, family and lawyer to settle out of court!
I got 6 monthe pay as a "goodwill gesture"
Is it possible to re visit the case as, due to being unemployable, (when a prospective new employer asks "why did you leave etc" the answer they are not looking for is), because I was dismissed for gross misconduct! I maxed out all my cards just to get by and pay bills.
The current situation is that a debt management company has helped us arrange lower payments to our creditors but this can't go on forever and now the mortgage company want the house!
Could I retrospectively sue the company ??
Even though the settlement said it was Full and final!!

[edc]

If you settled via COT3 or compromise agreement then you cannot revisit and go after the business for the same thing. It's a shame that you are in this situation but it sounds like you received some poor advice at the documentation stage. In fact you probably were not technically unfairly dismissed as it is unlikely the business would admit liability for that and as you did not proceed all the way to Tribunal no judgement was given.

How you want to paint this to future employers is up to you but you could be more economical with the truth and state that you left as you had a disagreement over something.

[Hugo a Gogo]

not quite the answer you're after, but I believe (I may be wrong) that if you have been refused a job due to this, you can sue that new company for not employing you :S

I'm sure I've read a story on here about a chap who routinely sues all manner of companies for discriminating against him on the basis that he sues everyone

[HereBeMonsters]

Why don't you tell the new prospective employer that you were wrongly dismissed, as evidenced by an out of court settlement?

[edc]

HereBeMonsters said:

Why don't you tell the new prospective employer that you were wrongly dismissed, as evidenced by an out of court settlement?

In whose opinion is OP wrongly dismissed? It's potentially factually incorrect to state matters like this.

The settlement is to end proceedings not to decide whether there was or was not an unfair dismissal per se.

There is wrongful dismissal and unfair dismissal. Your dismissal is only one of those if you succeed in your claim.

OP - if settled via compromise agreement, is there a reference included?

[russ_a]

Why not become self employed? You have 6 months wages to get you going.

[davepoth]

Your lawyer should really have secured an "agreed reference" as part of the settlement; I'm quite surprised they didn't.

[daveparry]

Thanks for the replies,

I am working now but as I said where once our household income was £50k + it is now just over £30K and having had 6 months incomeless I find myself now 12 months later still suffering the residual effects of maxing out all credit streams (I know it was stupid) the mortgage company have told us the only thing left for us to do is sell up!

Back to the bottom again!

Bugger!

[craigjm]

davepoth said:

Your lawyer should really have secured an "agreed reference" as part of the settlement; I'm quite surprised they didn't.

^ This.

[daveparry]

I didn't use a lawyer but i did manage to negotiate a reference.
Thanks again to everyone.

[davepoth]

daveparry said:

I didn't use a lawyer but i did manage to negotiate a reference.
Thanks again to everyone.

If the reference doesn't mention "gross misconduct" then it didn't happen. "finesse" the conversation you have with employers, tell them that you either left by mutual agreement (which is true; if you'd gone to tribunal you might still be working there), or explain to them that due to the nature of the work you aren't allowed to talk about why you left (I had to sign the Official Secrets Act at my last place which made this easier).