Generally, the Employment Tribunal must receive a claim within three months of the employment ending or of the matter being complained about. If the tribunal receives the claim later, it will ask why, sometimes by means of preliminary hearing, and unless there is a very strong reason will not accept it.

In certain circumstances such when an employee writes to you within the original time limit raising a grievance or statutory grievance procedures have to be gone through, these limits will be extended by up to three months.

The tribunal will send you a copy of the claim form (IT1) within five days of receipt together with the booklet "What to do if taken to an Employment Tribunal". It will also send you a Notice of Appearance form (IT3). You have 21 days to reply stating whether you intend to resist or defend the application and your reasons for doing so.

Remember that the form is relatively easy to fill out - make sure you check all of the facts and remember that if you leave it too late, you may lose your right to defend the claim.

Remember too that all internal disciplinary and grievance procedures must be exhausted before bringing a tribunal claim. Tribunals will be able to adjust rates of financial compensation up or down, based on whether or not employees and employers follow proper procedures.

When the tribunal gets your reply, it will send copies to the claimant and Acas, who will offer to conciliate. If the claim seems straightforward, the tribunal will usually send you a Notice of Hearing (hearing date) with form IT1. For more complex cases, it will send you the date once you have replied to the claim. If the date is impossible or inconvenient for your witnesses, tell the tribunal as soon as possible - it may be possible to change it.

If for any reason you need to ask for a postponement e.g. because one of your important witnesses is unavailable, you must do so in writing at the earliest possible opportunity and give full reasons for your request. You should copy your request to the other side so that they are aware of it. The decision to grant a postponement will be made by a tribunal Chairperson and the tribunal office will advise you of their decision in writing. The tribunal Chairperson may wish to have the views of the other side before reaching a decision.

At any time before the hearing, the claimant can withdraw their claim, or you can agree a settlement (see alternative ways of resolving disputes described below).


Alternative ways of resolving employment disputes
In addition to employment tribunals, disputes can be resolved in the following ways:

• Many employers choose to seek professional advice - e.g. from a solicitor or an employer's association if they have one. The problem with using a solicitor or a local or general law firm can be that they may well not have any specialist employment law knowledge and just hand the case on to a specialist firm of employment solicitors or a barrister. This can significantly add to costs, with the result that even fighting a good case can be rendered not worthwhile. Remember that you can only very rarely claim all of your legal costs, even if you win your tribunal case
• It is usually better, therefore, first to make a clear assessment of whether you are likely to win a case. This should be based both on the rights and wrongs as spelled out in the legislation; and also on the procedures you have used as these can be material to any case
• Then try and resolve the claim - on the basis of knowledge of the law - before it comes to a tribunal; information in the employersfriend.com site should prove useful for employers wishing both to negotiate and/or to handle their own cases
• Look carefully at the ACAS/mediation/arbitration routes and check whether such avenues have been exhausted 

Handling your own tribunal case

• Remember that tribunals aim to be relatively user-friendly and handling your own case may well be an option
• Find out if you qualify for free help in preparing your case on the CLSdirect.org.uk website
• If the claimant's application does not adequately explain their claim, you can ask them to provide further information. If they don't you can ask the tribunal to order them to provide it
• Agree with the other side which documents either of you will use at the hearing, and copy them into a single pack (the agreed bundle). Prepare six copies for the hearing
• Double check your evidence - especially in areas of procedure. Check you have followed corrent procedures. If you have not, you may automatically lose any claim, though the tribunal may well reduce any awards if your failure to follow procedures was minor or not material 
• Tell the tribunal how many witnesses you intend to call. If a potential witness is unwilling, you can seek a witness order from the tribunal to make them attend
• Have written witness statements from yourself and your witnesses. Make six copies of the statements for use at the hearing
• Prepare any evidence which may help in reducing compensation in the event the claimant is successful - e.g. has the claimant done everything they can to mitigate their losses?
• In claims for breach of contract you may wish to lodge a counter-claim for breach of contract against the claimant. The tribunal documentation will explain how and when this can be done.
  
  The tribunal will then write to you giving dates that you need to have everything prepared by

The tribunal hearing 

• Remember to turn up in good time for the hearing
• If possible, take someone with you to help with papers etc
• Have all your papers ready and ordered
• Make sure you have rehearsed and marshalled your arguments
• Many hearings only take a couple of hours

The employee/s may well be represented by a laywer from Citzens' Advice or a trade-union representative, but the tribunals are designed to be freindly to ordinary people handling their own cases - the main thing is to be certain of your arguments and to have evidence to support them, including on areas such as the procedures you followed

Possible outcomes from tribunal cases
An employer may:

Costs
Costs are be awarded only in very limited circumstances - broadly, where the tribunal considers one party has acted unreasonably in pursuing or conducting their case. This can make using lawyers an often expensive business, especially for relatively straightforward cases, as you may well not be able to reclaim any legal costs.

However, changes have also been made to the cost rules to deter abuse of the system. Tribunals are now able, in certain circumstances, to:

You may appeal only:

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