Anna Mahtani talks to Joe Mezgebe who is still seeking justice after losing his job at Christ’s College Finchley in 2021

When Joe Mezgebe, a former IT technician at a Finchley school, filed an unfair dismissal lawsuit in 2021, he had never heard of judicial postponements. Now, he has lost £15,300 in legal fees and is undergoing treatment for the mental distress it has put him under.
“The first time it happened I was devastated. Then it happened again,” Joe said after his Employment Tribunal hearing against Christ’s College Finchley was postponed twice due to a shortage of judges.
The prostate cancer patient now fears dying before his case is heard: “I went to court to get justice, and now I can’t afford to fight anybody.”
In 2013, legal aid was removed from employment claims in England. Although pro-bono charities are available, most have a limit to the number of days they can represent a client in court.
Weary of being at a disadvantage, Joe decided to self-fund his legal representation. However, last minute judicial delays incur full legal fees for each postponed hearing.
His initial hearing was planned for 14th September 2023, and rescheduled for 26th September 2024. It is now set for October 2025.
Both times, the postponement was announced the day before the planned hearing.
“I went absolutely doolally,” said Joe. “I thought: am I living in hell?”
As a result of deteriorating health, judicial delays, and the financial burden it has incurred, he suffers from depression and suicidal thoughts.
Having only worked at Christ’s College Finchley for just under two years (from December 2019 to March 2021) Joe has now spent almost double that time waiting for his hearing.
He is not the only one waiting. According to the Ministry of Justice, the average wait time between issue and trial used to be under 30 weeks before 2010. In 2024 cases waited an average of 50.9 weeks – almost a year.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has ordered 2,000 extra sitting days to help address the backlog of court cases, but this only applies for Crown Court cases.
Danny Shaw, crime and justice commentator and former adviser to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, described the case as “heartbreaking”.
He told the Post: “We have known for some time about the appalling backlogs in Crown Courts in England and Wales that hear criminal cases, but what is less well known is that other areas of the law are affected, too.
“For years the previous Conservative government stripped funding from the legal system and ran it down.” As a result, many lawyers have turned from legal aid to more lucrative work. “Lawyers are the pipeline for judges, so it’s no surprise that the number of judges has fallen as well.
“Unless there are some imaginative solutions the backlogs won’t improve: it takes time to select and train judges and it will take a lot of investment to encourage more lawyers back into this kind of work.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson told the Post: “We sympathise with the deeply distressing impact court and tribunal delays can have on victims.”
Despite the current inherited crisis, the ministry claimed to be “fully committed to tackling backlogs across the justice system”. They aim to recruit at least 1000 judges and tribunal members in 2025.
Joe’s hearing was postponed until September 2026 and eventually relisted for October 2025.
“When I got the email back informing me that they’d moved it forward, that gave me hope,” he said.
But he is concerned that the same thing could happen again, and that this time he will either have succumbed to cancer or be unfit for court. “I’m worried my mental state is going to unravel by the time I get to my hearing.”
Until then, Joe hopes his story will stop others from becoming trapped in a heavily-backlogged justice system and push the government to reconsider the human cost of the employment tribunal process.
The Post approached Christ’s College Finchley regarding Joe’s situation but they declined to comment.
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