AN ACADEMIC has been told by judges that she can continue a legal fight with Oxford University even though her case appeared “weak”.

Cecile Deer, who is a French lecturer at Balliol College, Oxford, originally brought a discrimination claim eight years ago. This claim was settled in 2008. An employment tribunal ruled against her in a different matter three years later.

Last month she asked the Court of Appeal in London to consider her case, arguing she deserved compensation because her “grievance’’ had not been fairly handled by university bosses.

Yesterday three judges ruled in her favour and said she could ask a tribunal to re-examine some allegations.

One judge, Lord Justice Elias, said: “The case appears to be very weak.”

The court heard that the background to Dr Deer’s claims was complicated. Her lawyers said she had brought a discrimination claim against the university in 2007.

That claim had been settled in 2008 and Dr Deer had been paid £25,000.

Dr Deer had then “put in an internal grievance’’ after a professor – Geoffrey Walford – refused to give her a reference when she applied for a research post at Merton College.

While that internal grievance process was ongoing she had launched another legal claim alleging that the university had “colluded’’ with Prof Walford.

That claim was dismissed by an employment tribunal in 2010. She had also been also told that her grievance had not been upheld.

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