Writing the tribunal claim (ET1)

YOU NO LONGER HAVE TO PAY A FEE TO BRING A CLAIM FOLLOWING A SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT ON 26 JULY 2017.

Before you make a claim

Making a claim means completing the ET1 claim form and filing it with the tribunal office.

Before you do so, you must tell the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) that you intend to make a claim to the tribunal.

When you contact Acas, inform them that you intent to make a claim against your employer. Acas will offer to step in and try to help settle the dispute, by contacting the employer on your behalf. This is known as the free Acas ‘Early Conciliation’ service.

Acas do not offer legal advice, but they may assist as an impartial intermediary and could potentially help in communications to facilitate resolving the dispute, without having to going to the tribunal.

Acas will send you an early conciliation certificate. Your certificate number is requested at question 2.3* of the ET1 form. This is evidence to the Court that you have informed Acas of the dispute, before making a claim.

Please remember, early conciliation is voluntary, but you must at least contact Acas before starting your claim. If you or your employer do not wish to use the service, Acas will still issue you an early conciliation certificate, so that you may proceed to the tribunal.

Please see our Early Conciliation and Time Limits page for more information.

Making a claim – the logistics

The ET1 claim form specifically asks for your early conciliation certificate number, so make sure you have been issued one before sending your completed ET1 claim form.

If you do not have an early conciliation certificate number, the ET1 form will ask you to select a reason explaining why. It is important to note that it is only in very limited circumstances that the tribunal will accept why you have not notified Acas of your intention to make a claim.

A tribunal case is started when the ET1 form arrives at the tribunal office. The Claim must arrive at the tribunal within the correct time limit.  You should be very careful to ensure that the claim is submitted in time. If you submit the ET1 after the time limit has expired, the claim will be deemed to be received ‘out of time’ and it may not be accepted. Usually you have to submit your ET1 form within three months of your employment ending or the problem happening.

You can either download an ET1 form and send it to the Employment Tribunal central office or complete the online version. There is guidance available on how to fill in the ET1 form and where to send it on the government website at www.gov.uk

The quickest way to submit a claim is online.

Claim forms must be sent to one of the following (depending whether you are in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland):

Telephone: 0300 123 1024  Textphone:  18001 0300 123 1024

Telephone: 0141 354 8574 Textphone: 18001 0141 354 8574.

Northern Ireland

The Secretary
Office of the Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal
Killymeal House
2 Cromac Quay
BELFAST
BT7 2JD

or mail@employmenttribunalsni.org.

The quickest way to submit a claim is online. If you can’t submit online and if the time limit is near, the ET1 form can be hand-delivered to certain designated tribunals. There is a list of the tribunals to which a form can be delivered in the www.gov.uk guidance.

Whichever way the ET1 is sent to the tribunal, you should obtain proof of receipt so that you may evidence that your claim was submitted before the time limit. Make sure you also keep a copy of your completed ET1 form.

You should try, if possible, to comply with the Acas code on disciplinary and grievance procedures.  If you do not it could reduce the amount of any compensation that you are awarded. A step by step guide to the Acas code on disciplinary and grievance procedures can be found here.

Completing the ET1 claim form

A worker who starts a tribunal Claim is called the ‘Claimant’. The employer against whom the Claim is made is called the ‘Respondent’.

All questions in the ET1 form marked with (*) are mandatory and must be filled in.

Various personal details need to be completed on the form. It is a good idea to have a recent payslip to hand, as this will usually contain most of the requested information, such as your employer’s address, your salary, and any other benefits you receive as part of your employment.

Providing the background to your claim

At question 8.2 of the ET1 form, you are asked to provide a short statement setting out your Claim. This can be written by you or your representative, and in the first person or the third person. As the Claimant, it is your responsibility to check the entire form for accuracy.

As relaying history can sometimes be tricky and a little confusing for the reader, here are some general tips for writing the background of your claim:

• Write in chronological order – start with how the dispute began and use short paragraphs to detail how it has progressed;
• Include dates wherever possible, e.g. ‘on 10 May 2021…’
• Use short, numbered paragraphs which mirror the timeline of the key events;
• Keep the explanation concise and establish the key events;
• Identify all relevant people involved using their full name and job title;
• Include all relevant incidents and any discriminatory actions

It is often easiest to write the first paragraph of your statement as follows:

‘I your name] (the Claimant) started work for [employers name] (the Respondent) on [date]. I was employed as [job title]. I was dismissed / made redundant / resigned (delete as appropriate) on [date].’ 

Then, begin your chronology of events that have caused the problem.

The length of the statement depends on how many incidents have occurred, but as an extremely rough guide, about one and a half pages would not be unusual. It is easier for the tribunal to read if the statement is typed, using short numbered paragraphs, with a line space in between.

Examples for writing the statement at question 8.2 (7.4 in Northern Ireland)

On our website, we have provided a set of precedents, which are essentially examples of how to write the background to you claim, asked for at question 8.2 (7.4 in Northern Ireland). The precedents cover different situations listed below. We have included some additional guidance and tips, so please click the relevant link for more information on each scenario, if relevant to your circumstances.

• Precedent 2: Pregnancy: Unfavourable treatment and redundancy dismissalPrecedent 3: Redundancy while on maternity leave
• Precedent 4: Breach of the right to return following maternity leave, i.e. old job not returned following maternity leave ending
• Precedent 5: Breach of flexible working regulations and part time work refusal
• Precedent 6: Refusal of part time work request; detriment for taking dependant leave, disability discrimination by association
• Precedent 7: Refusal of flexible working request for a father (direct sex discrimination)

Whilst some of the scenarios may not be directly applicable to your set of circumstances, it will still prove helpful to look at a precedent example to get a feel for how to go about writing your claim.

Naming individual Respondents

The ‘Respondent’ is the name given to the organisation who your claim is against. In tribunal cases, the Respondent will normally be your employer. Your employer should be detailed on the ET1 form using the registered company name, for example, the name as it appears in your contract of employment.

In discrimination cases, the individual or individuals who discriminated against the worker can be named as additional Respondents, but it is essential always to name the employing organisation as the main Respondent. For other Claims, e.g. under the Employment Rights Act 1996 or in Northern Ireland under the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, no individual Respondents can be named (unless the individual is an employer).

The main reasons to name an individual Respondent are:

• Where a particular individual has carried out most or all of the discriminatory actions.
• Where there is a risk that the employing organisation will avoid legal responsibility because it had taken all reasonably practicable steps to prevent any discrimination happening. (This defence rarely succeeds, but it is sometimes put forward.)
• Where there is a risk that the employing organisation will go into liquidation before paying any compensation awarded by the tribunal. The Claimant may then be able to get some or all of the compensation from the individual Respondent.

The main reasons against naming an individual Respondent are:

• It is not always easy to clearly identify which individual is responsible for the discrimination.
• Naming one individual may imply that other individuals have done nothing wrong.
• Employment tribunals are often uncomfortable about pointing the finger at particular individuals. In a borderline case, it may put them off finding the employer guilty of discrimination.
• If individual Respondents are going to be joined in, it is inadvisable to add more than one or two without very good reason. It can look vindictive to the tribunal to name too many, or as if the Claimant has lost their sense of judgement and is wildly accusing everyone of discrimination without evidence.
• Individual Respondents are sometimes represented by the employing organisation’s solicitors, but sometimes get their own solicitors if it is a controversial case, e.g. concerning harassment.

How much detail should I include at question 8.2 (7.4 in Northern Ireland)?

In the ET1 form, it is important just to outline the case. Describe the events that caused the problem as concisely as possible. 

A few weeks before the hearing, you will be asked write a full witness statement giving all the details. The witness statement can be anything from 10 – 50 pages long. There is a sample witness statement available on our site here.

For the purposes of the ET1, just stick to the facts. For each paragraph ask yourself, ‘does this statement tell the reader what happened; what was said; when; where; and by who?’ This is a great way to streamline your writing. Keep any additional points in a separate document, as you may need the extra detail for your witness statement.

It is important that all key incidents and all discriminatory actions are mentioned. If the employer made any relevant adverse remarks or negative comments, these must be included.

It is important to be accurate. If you cannot remember the exact wording, say so in your statement. For example: ‘In our meeting on 1 January 2021, my manager, Joe Bloggs, said, “It was a pity you got pregnant so quickly”, or words to that effect’.

Always keep in mind what needs to be proved under the relevant law. The key facts should support the basis of your Claim.

Deciding what legal claims you have

You may have several different legal rights forming the basis of your claim. For example, a claimant might have been unfairly dismissed, subjected to discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy and not paid their outstanding holiday pay.

It is crucial to establish all the facts and ensure nothing is left out before deciding what legal rights/claims apply and which facts are relevant. Our website contains lots of advice pages giving further detail on your rights at work. 

Where several legal rights apply to the same set of facts, it is often easier if the Claim covers all the relevant issues in one chronological ‘story’. At the end of the description of facts, set out the relevant law that best applies to your set of circumstances.

If you believe two or more legal rights may apply, e.g. a dismissal due to pregnancy can be sex discrimination and automatic unfair dismissal these can all be addressed using ‘and/or’ in the same closing paragraph, for example:

• ‘I believe I was dismissed because of my pregnancy contrary to the Equality Act 2010 and/or my dismissal amounted to automatic unfair dismissal under the Employment Rights Act 1996 and/or I was unfairly dismissed on ordinary principles.’

If there is an additional claim, based on different facts (e.g. the employer also failed to give outstanding holiday pay, so there is a holiday pay Claim), it is a matter of judgment whether it reads more clearly to set out all the facts covering every Claim in a single chronological ‘story’ or whether it is best to tell the main ‘story’ first and then add the facts relevant to the other Claim separately.

Question 9.2 – Compensation

Question 9.2 asks you to summarise what compensation you are seeking and how you have approached your calculation. 

Please have a look at our page on schedule of loss for help with completing box 9.2 of the ET1.

Further Information

For further information about what happens after your claim is submitted to the tribunal office, please see the Government guidance (T427) – ‘Your claim – what next’. 

This advice applies in England, Wales and Scotland. If you live in another part of the UK, the law may differ. Please call our helpline for more details. If you are in Northern Ireland you can visit the Labour Relations Agency or call their helpline Workplace Information Service on 03300 555 300.

If you have further questions and would like to contact our advice team please use our advice contact form below or call us.

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