Trying to be your own DIY hotshot lawyer based on what you read in some books is bad enough.
Doing so with employment law is asking for trouble and you are only going to embarrass yourself.
Disagree with you there mixture. I had a lawyer but he was full of sh!t so I got rid of him. What's not to say that he didn't contact the other side and made a deal with them to lose my case in reward for more money under the table - it happens?
So I went about it solo. I picked up the two volume Fair Work Act off the internet and a few other related documents. I downloaded about 10 transcripts of cases that were similar to mine. I spoke to Fair Work councilors for impartial advice. I learnt a lot and it wasn't that hard.
The other part of the law system was learning the formalities. I had marked a day to go see some actual public hearings but never did because I ran out of time.
The ugly and scary bit was dealing with the outrageous lies submitted as witness statements and the threats made by their lawyers including paying their $15K-$20K costs. I can tell you that it is not a comfortable feeling when you have been working hard for several years with obscenely early starts only to be outed on someone's whim, rapidly going broke, and fighting insurmountable attempts at being scorned and drowned.
It was obvious I had a strong case from the loud noise on the other side, for all I wanted out of them was the plain and simple truth for my dismissal - which I already knew was based on prejudice. In my readings I had come across an age old bit of law wisdom - never ask a question that you do not already know the answer to, and with that advice I nailed that bitch to the wall.
But even if you win, you still lose. Tribunals take months to be scheduled (mine took 8 months). During that period what do you tell your prospective new employer? Do you lie and get caught out later, do you tell the truth and fail the short-listing process. After you win and the termination becomes a resignation, how do you then explain the logic of "resigning" from a job to become unemployed? It really is a stinker of a position be in through no choice of your own.
Unlike my sudden and unexpected dismissal where it was the first thing performed by that person after coming back from 2 weeks leave (I was taken off site, denied a support person, codes were changed to be denied access back into the building, and sacked), Mr jimgriff is still lucky to be sitting in his office and should therefore request that he no longer be harassed until they can provide him with absolute and undeniable proof of their claims.