Commentary on Sections Conciliation Section 26: Determination without a hearing
73.This section provides for employment tribunal procedure regulations to authorise cases to be determined without a hearing in the circumstances prescribed by the regulations. It is intended that the circumstances in which a case may be determined in this way would be where both parties have given their consent, by signing a form waiving their rights to an oral public hearing, following independent advice. This would be subject to the tribunal deciding that there should be an oral public hearing notwithstanding the parties' agreement to the contrary. This is achieved by substituting a new subsection (3A) for the existing subsection (3A) in section 7 of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996.