Public sector equality duty - taking legal action

Summary

Taking court action can be a long and stressful process. It can also be expensive. It’s important to keep in mind that if you lose the case in court, you may have to pay the other side's legal costs which could be high. If you’re thinking about taking court action, you should talk to an adviser. Remember, only public authorities like a school or local authority must comply with the public sector equality duty. If you take action against a public authority because they’ve not complied with the public sector equality duty, you need to follow a special procedure called judicial review. Judicial review is a special procedure you can use to challenge decisions made by public authorities. Judicial review can only be used against a public authority. You can only make an application for judicial review if there are no other ways of challenging a decision - for example, if you don’t have a separate right of appeal, or you’ve exhausted your rights to appeal. For example, if you take action against your school about a disciplinary issue there may be an appeal to a disciplinary committee. In this case you need to do this first before you make an application for judicial review. Before you.

Key information

• More about public authorities
• More about who's protected under the Equality Act
• order the public authority to do something - this is called a mandatory order
• order the public authority not to do something - this is called a prohibiting order.
• More about taking action about discrimination
• More about using a solicitor
• More about help with legal costs
• You can also check if you're eligible on the GOV.UK website, at www.gov.uk
• Taking action about the public sector equality duty
• When can you use the public sector equality duty
• What's the public sector equality duty?
• www.publiclawproject.org.uk

Practical guidance

• Source: Public sector equality duty - taking legal action

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• Complaining about the public sector equality duty
• Discrimination because of religion or belief
• Gathering evidence about discrimination at work