Making a claim in the Employment Tribunal

Read our step by step guides to help you understand and manage the employment tribunal process.

Bringing a claim in the employment tribunal does not need to be a complicated process but there are certain steps that you will need to take to successfully submit your claim.

Types of Claims

There are a vast amount of claims that can be brought to an employment tribunal. These include but are not limited to:

• Unfair dismissal (including constructive unfair dismissal)
• Discrimination
• Detriment claims e.g. whistleblowing or asserting a statutory right
• Wrongful dismissal
• Equal pay
• Unlawful deduction of wages

Early Conciliation

As explained in our Step 1 guide , you must contact Acas to initiate early conciliation before submitting a claim to the employment tribunal. The purpose of this process is to encourage parties to settle the claim outside of a tribunal. A conciliator will be assigned to your case and will act as the intermediary between yourself and the employer. They will want to establish the facts of the case and find out if there is any desire to settle on either side. If you have a legal representative, they can undertake these negotiations for you.

Early conciliation lasts for six weeks with no option to extend it any further – but it can be brought to an end earlier if either party doesn’t want to participate. When it ends, you are issued with a certificate to show that you have completed early conciliation. You will need this certificate as evidence to submit your claim form if no settlement is reached.

Time Limits

There are strict deadlines to bring tribunal claims and it is known as the ‘limitation date.’ For most claims such as unfair dismissal and discrimination, this is 3 months less one day since the act complained of (e.g. the date of dismissal or the last act of discrimination). Your time limit will be paused for the duration of early conciliation. Time limits can be tricky to calculate and you may wish to seek advice on your limitation date from a legal advisor to ensure that this is not missed.

ET1

To submit your claim to the tribunal, you must complete an ‘ET1’ claim form.  This is the first impression that the tribunal has of your case so if it is not presented clearly, your claim may be rejected.

That’s why it is essential that your claim form contains sufficient and specific detail about the nature of your complaints. This allows the tribunal to understand the issues and then when it is sent to the other side (they are known as ‘the respondent’), they should be able to fully understand the case against them. If they think that there is something missing from your version of events or if something is unclear, they can ask the tribunal to order that you provide additional information by a certain date – these are known as ‘further and better particulars.’

Do I need legal representation to bring a claim in the employment tribunal?

Your claim form can be drafted and submitted to the Tribunal by yourself, however to ensure that your claim has the best chance of success, and you have included all the claims you are entitled to bring, you should seek legal advice prior to submission. It can be much harder to amend claim forms after submission, often requiring specific permission from the judge who is handling the claim.

We are highly experienced in drafting claim forms for the employment tribunal and will be able to provide you with advice on the type of claims you should be bringing, along with an honest assessment of whether your claim is likely to succeed.

To speak with one of our legal advisors please contact us today at 0333 888 1360 or email [email protected]

For advice or for a free assessment contact us today