The HR Forum

Hi all

I am currently in the throes of taking my former employer to a small claims court due to them owing me monies/salary and commissions that were due which they have simply failed to pay as they did not want to due to me leaving their company.

I have already issued them with a detailed letter with attached documents stating the evidence that I will look to use when bringing a claim against them. I am relatively comfortable that I have a strong case for winning this case as they are looking to rely on using the term 'discretion' on how they pay their commission. They are looking to apply the wording of discretion in not paying me as I simply stated that I was leaving. There is a lot of case law that I have researched that supports this, so I am comfortable with this point.

......However upon leaving I did email certain documents to my personal email address...such as terms and agreements that are in place between my former employer and companies that they do business with. This was purely to understand for my own purposes, when a company would pay my former employer commission so that I had an idea of when I could claim it...i.e. to understand what the back to back agreement was. Please do note that I have remained in the same industry but in no shape or form have done/used any such agreements since leaving.

So...more recently my former employer has responded my detailed letter and offered a meagre sum of money as a gesture of goodwill in an effort to settle the claim out of court, but has refuted the rationale of my claim against him. My former employer has also stated that they would in turn bring a counter claim against myself for a 'gross breach of my contract' for emailing confidential information to a 3rd party i.e. my email address. The former employer is threatening to pursue this line of action if I do not accept their offer.

....Therefore my question is, has anyone had any experience of this or advice or further questions that I need to consider before pursuing with my small claims court action?

As I understand it, I do not see what direct loss my former employer has incurred from me emailing such documents to myself, therefore cannot understand what damage this may have caused for him to substantiate a claim? Furthermore, since leaving I have also redirected business his way from former customers who have contacted me directly in an effort to be reasonable etc!

Any advice offered would be most appreciated!