Draft with care

A recent case has highlighted the dangers of failing to draft medical questionnaires for job candidates carefully enough. In Cheltenham Borough Council v Laird [2009] the council brought an unsuccessful action against its former managing director, Mrs Laird, alleging that she had made fraudulent and/or negligent misrepresentations when she completed a pre-employment medical questionnaire.

Mrs Laird had a history of depression that she had not included in her response to the council’s pre-employment questionnaire. On the face of it, such an omission might be expected to amount to a misrepresentation by Mrs Laird. However, the High Court found that Mrs Laird provided correct answers to all the questions asked of her. As her responses were neither false nor misleading, there was no misrepresentation. The council therefore failed in its attempt to recover the ‘extraordinary expenses’ of almost £1m to cover costs including Mrs Laird’s ill-health pension, which it would have been unlikely to incur had it hired someone without her medical condition.

Please click here to view the full Employment Law Journal article.