See What Happens at the Major Milestones in Your Claim

A Tribunal claim doesn't have to end in a hearing. Before a claim is even lodged and at almost any point afterwards, there are several routes that can resolve a dispute by agreement instead.

A full hearing carries financial and time costs for both sides: legal fees and time off work, the time spent gathering evidence and preparing for the day itself and often, a good deal of stress, especially if the parties still have to work together. No hearing outcome is ever certain either, however strong a case looks on paper. That's why resolution is encouraged early and why it's often worth exploring, even if you don't expect it to succeed.

There are four main routes. Acas conciliation is free, confidential and usually the first one you'll come across, since almost every claimant has to notify Acas before lodging a claim at all. Judicial Assessment is a Judge's private, provisional view on the strengths and risks of each side's case, given early on if both sides agree to it. Judicial Mediation is a voluntary, Judge-led mediation day. The Dispute Resolution Appointment is reserved for the longest and most complex cases and unlike the others, the Tribunal can direct both sides to attend whether they want to or not.

Timing varies by route. Acas conciliation typically has a window of up to 12 weeks before a claim is lodged, though conciliation itself can continue right up to the hearing date if there's still a reasonable chance of settling. The other three routes happen later, once a claim is already under way.

Everything discussed in any of these routes is confidential. If a case doesn't settle, nothing said can be raised again at a later hearing, so there's no downside to giving them a genuine try.

The ET1 is the claim form that begins your Employment Tribunal journey. It asks for your unique early conciliation number, your own and your employer's details, information about your employment, the type of claim you're bringing and the outcome you're asking for.

This is a formal legal document, not just a way to get the process moving. It needs to set out everything you're complaining about, since you generally can't add new complaints once it's submitted. Naming your employer correctly matters: their exact legal name has to be used and it has to match the name on your Acas early conciliation certificate or your claim could be rejected.

Before you can submit an ET1, you almost always have to notify Acas first. That notification opens a conciliation window of up to 12 weeks and pauses your time limit while it's underway, so the clock doesn't run out during that process. Once conciliation ends and your certificate is issued, you'll usually have at least a month left to submit your claim. There's also an overall deadline from the event you're complaining about, normally 3 months less a day, extending to 6 months for anything happening on or after 1 October 2026.

A Case Management Hearing is where the Tribunal gives directions setting out what each side needs to do and by when, as the claim moves toward a final hearing. In many cases, this is also where the List of Issues is settled between the parties under the guidance of the Employment Judge. This is the agreed list of questions the Tribunal will need to answer to reach its decision.

Case management is essential because everything that follows builds on it. The List of Issues agreed at this stage becomes the reference point for disclosure, the bundle of documents, witness statements and cross-examination, right through to final submissions.

It usually takes place early, not long after the pleadings (the ET1 and ET3) have been filed, though in more straightforward claims the Tribunal may issue directions in writing instead of holding a hearing.

Our deep dive Video Guidance walks through what to expect and how to prepare for this case management stage in their claim and provides a downloadable template containing the sample issues claimants will need.

A Schedule of Loss is the document that sets out, in financial terms, what a claim is worth. The Claimant prepares it first, then the Respondent replies with its own Counter-Schedule of Loss, giving their view of what a fair outcome would look like if the claim succeeds.

Both documents do more than total up a number. They're used in settlement talks and at mediation and, if the claim reaches a remedy hearing, the Tribunal relies on them to decide what compensation to award. For the Respondent, receiving the Claimant's Schedule is often the first real sense of the scale of what's being claimed.

The Claimant is usually ordered to produce their Schedule of Loss early in the process, not long after the pleadings are filed, either at a case management hearing in more complex cases or by standard Tribunal notification in simpler ones. The Respondent then has a short window to produce its Counter-Schedule in reply.

This is one of the more complex documents in a Tribunal claim: it covers several different heads of loss, can be adjusted up or down by the Tribunal for various reasons and has its own tax treatment. Our deeper dive Video Guidance includes a template Schedule of Loss to help claimants with this task.

Disclosure is the stage where both sides show each other the documents (and other relevant materials) relevant to the claim, including the ones that help their case and the ones that don't. It covers more than emails and letters: text messages, recordings and even CCTV footage can count if they're relevant.

Disclosure matters because it must both support the agreed list of issues and provide the foundation for everything that follows. The agreed bundle of documents and the witness statements both link directly to what's disclosed at this stage, so getting it right early makes the rest of the process easier to manage.

Disclosure usually follows soon after the Tribunal issues its directions, often at a case management hearing and is typically ordered to be completed within a matter of weeks or a small number of months. It isn't a one-off task either: if further relevant documents come to light as the case continues, they need to be disclosed too.

Some documents are privileged, such as confidential legal advice, which means it doesn't have to be disclosed. Disagreements over what counts as privileged, or over incomplete disclosure, are common.

The bundle of documents is the agreed collection of paperwork, evidence and witness statements that both sides will refer to at the hearing. It follows a structured, chronological format rather than simply gathering everything either side has.

Getting the bundle right matters because a document left out at this stage can be difficult to introduce later. Your witness statement will also need to cross-refer to it by page number, so an incomplete or poorly organised bundle makes the rest of your preparation harder.

It comes together once disclosure is complete, usually well ahead of the hearing so both sides and the Tribunal have time to read it. Both a physical and an electronic version are normally required, with matching page numbers throughout and the Tribunal asks for it to be delivered in specific form by specific means.

Our deeper dive Video Guidance includes a template Index of Documents to help you get started and answers the questions most likely to challenge a claimant as they work through this important procedural stage.

A Cast List is a short schedule naming everyone who comes up in the evidence: in the pleadings, the agreed bundle of documents and the witness statements. It's one of the simplest documents in a Tribunal claim but the Tribunal relies on it being accurate, since it references the Cast List in the proceedings and in reaching its final decision.

It comes together late in the process, after the bundle of documents is agreed and the witness statements have been exchanged because that's when you can be sure of everyone who needs to be included. It's usually one of the last documents finalised before the hearing pack goes to the Tribunal.

A Chronology of Events is a timeline of what happened, agreed between the parties and cross-referenced to the agreed bundle of documents. Simple as it sounds, it becomes one of the most useful documents in the case: you'll return to it when preparing your witness statement, planning cross-examination, drafting final submissions and thinking about remedy. The Tribunal relies on it too and will often draw directly on it in reaching a decision.

Like the Cast List, it comes together properly once the bundle of documents is agreed and the witness statements have been exchanged, though it's worth starting a working draft much earlier and building it up as the case develops.

A witness statement is your written evidence for the hearing, prepared and submitted ahead of time so the Tribunal can read it in advance. Because it stands in place of you giving your account out loud, it needs to be complete: you're unlikely to get the chance to add to it later.

It matters because you'll be under oath or affirmation when you confirm it's true. It also needs to address every point in the agreed List of Issues, cross-referring to the agreed bundle of documents where relevant.

You'll usually want to start drafting reasonably early, while events are fresh in your mind, then refine the content once the bundle of documents is agreed. It's exchanged with the other side and filed with the Tribunal several weeks ahead of the hearing, in line with the Tribunal's case management directions.

Our deeper dive Video Guidance includes a downloadable template to help you structure your witness statement.

Giving evidence is the stage where you attend the hearing, take the oath or affirm and are questioned on your witness statement in front of the Judge and any Panel members.

It matters because your statement is 'taken as read': the Tribunal will already have read it during what's called reading time at the start of the hearing, so you won't read it aloud yourself and questioning can begin almost immediately. That makes knowing your statement and the agreed bundle of documents it refers to essential.

Cross-examination is when each side questions the other's witnesses, to test the evidence they've given and to draw out points that support your own case. It's built directly on the agreed List of Issues: the aim is to help the Tribunal answer the questions it has to decide, not simply to challenge everything the other side says.

It matters because this is where disputed facts are often won or lost. Careful preparation, working from the agreed bundle of documents and the List of Issues, makes the difference between cross-examination that helps your case and cross-examination that wastes the Tribunal's time.

It happens at the hearing, once a witness's statement has been taken as read and their evidence-in-chief is complete. Each witness is normally cross-examined in turn, followed by the chance for their own representative to re-examine on specific points.

Final Submissions are where you sum up your case for the Tribunal, addressing each issue in the agreed List of Issues and drawing together the evidence that supports your position. They're usually given orally, though the strongest submissions are also prepared in writing.

This matters because final submissions are your last opportunity to bring the evidence, the witness statements and the bundle of documents together, issue by issue, in the way you want the Tribunal to consider it. If the Tribunal doesn't give its decision on the day, it will issue what is known as a reserved judgment and your written submissions are often what the Panel returns to when they meet again to decide.

Final submissions come right at the end of the hearing, once all the evidence has been heard. Many claimants find this a daunting task so it helps to keep a working draft going throughout the case rather than starting from scratch at the end.