England: Dyslexic judge wins discrimination case over voice recognition software

Zorina Nadine Clarkson Palomares, a part-time judge working on immigration and social security cases, made complaints to the Employment Tribunal, alleging that her employer had failed to make reasonable adjustments.

The tribunal last week ruled unanimously that the government had breached its duty to make reasonable adjustments contrary to sections 20 and 21 of the Equality Act 2010.

This related to its failure to provide voice recognition software from September 2016 until 6 December 2018, and a failure to provide training in relation to proper use of the voice recognition software from September 2016 until May 2019.

The tribunal heard that the failure to make reasonable adjustments for Ms Palomares led to her performance being “unjustly criticised” and her being “unfairly threatened with the judicial equivalent of disciplinary sanctions”.

It said: “As a tribunal we have had the opportunity to stand back from the detail of this case and look at it holistically. Unfortunately, nobody within the respondent’s organisation was able to do the same.

“Put simply, the respondent organisation did not know how to handle the claimant’s situation properly. There was no pre-existing policy to deal with a judicial officeholder facing the challenges that were faced by the claimant.

“We accept and appreciate that the individuals within HMCTS were doing their level best in the circumstances to provide the claimant with what she needed. But in the absence of an appropriate policy or procedure they came up against significant obstacles in doing this.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice told the Law Society Gazette: “We have noted the judgment and are considering it carefully.”