Making a claim

To make a claim please click here.

Information needed before a claim can be accepted

Your claim cannot be accepted unless it meets certain conditions. It must be on an approved form provided by the Employment Tribunals Service. Also, it cannot be accepted if you have not filled in one or more sections on the claim form where you must give information. By law, you must tell us:

your name and address;
the name and address of the respondent or respondents (the person or organisation against whom you are making a claim);
the details of your complaint; and
whether or not you are or were an employee of the respondent.

If you are, or were, an employee of the respondent

You need to tell us whether your claim relates to your dismissal. If you are or were an employee of the respondent and your claim or part of it does not relate to you being dismissed, you must also tell us:

whether you have raised your complaint in writing with the respondent; andResolving disputes: a guide for employees
whether you have waited 28 days before presenting your claim to a tribunal office

If you have not done so, you must give a valid reason why you did not. You may want to get advice. A full list of possible reasons, along with detailed guidance, is given in the DTI booklet, 'Resolving disputes: a guide for employees' (PDF 46KB) .

How soon must I make my claim to an Employment Tribunal?

Most claims to Employment Tribunals must be made within very strict time limits. In most cases the tribunal must receive your claim within three months. This three months begins with the date your employment ended or when the matter you are complaining about happened. This means that if it happened on 1 March, the tribunal must receive your claim on or before 31 May. If it happened on 5 March, the tribunal must receive your claim on or before 4 June.

In certain circumstances, for example, when you write to your employer within the original time limit raising a grievance, these limits will be extended by three months - in other words, in most cases to six months. The circumstances in which time limits will be extended are set out in the DTI booklet, 'Resolving disputes: a guide for employees' (PDF 46KB).

If we receive your claim outside the time limit, the tribunal will only be able to consider it in a narrow range of circumstances. For example, you may have been in hospital for the period when you should have made your claim.

If you send your claim to us before the dismissal or grievance procedures are completed and your case reaches a hearing, the tribunal may reduce any compensation awarded to you if it believes that the failure to complete the procedures was your fault.

In general to claim unfair dismissal you must have worked continuously for the respondent for not less than one year. However, in certain cases relating to unfair dismissal it may not be necessary to have worked for the respondent for one year, for example:

Being involved with a union.
Joining a union or choosing not to join one.
Health and safety activities either as an employer's health and safety 'officer' or a worker's representative.
Activities as a pension scheme trustee.
Being, or proposing to become, an 'employee representative'.
Shop workers and betting workers who refuse Sunday work.
Certain provisions covered by the Working Time Regulations.

In these circumstances you can apply for an immediate re-employment order. However, the tribunal must receive your claim within seven days of your dismissal.

What happens next?

Your claim will not be accepted if:

It is not on an approved form;
You have not given all the required information; or
If it applies to your claim, you have not raised your complaint with the respondent and waited 28 days.

We will return your form to you with a letter telling you the reason why your claim has not been accepted and what action you should take.

If your claim is accepted, the tribunal office will send you a letter to confirm this together with a booklet which will tell you what the next steps are. At the same time we will send the respondent a copy of your claim form together with a form for their response. If no response is received within 28 days, a tribunal may consider issuing a default judgement. A default judgment allows a tribunal chairman to give a decision about the claim without the claimant having to go to a hearing.

Having received and accepted the claim, we will give it a case number.You should quote your case number if you contact the tribunal office by phone or in writing.

In most cases, we also send a copy of your claim to Acas. This is the independent conciliation service. They will try to help you and the respondent reach an agreed settlement if that is what you want to do.

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Where to send a claim

If you make your claim online, it will automatically go to the tribunal office once completed. There is no need to send a copy of your form by post, but please print off a copy for your records.

If you have completed the downloadable PDF version of the claim form, when you click the submit button on the form it will be sent to the relevant tribunal office via this website. There is no need to send a copy of your form by post.

If you wish to post your claim, use the postcode for the place where you normally worked to identify the correct tribunal office address you use. If you have never worked for the respondent, identify the correct tribunal office postal address by using the postcode for the place where the matter which you are complaining about happened. Use the Venue finder to find the correct tribunal office.

In Scotland, all claims are initially processed by the Glasgow tribunal office and you should send your claim to that office. However, you may take your claim to the Aberdeen, Dundee or Edinburgh office if that is more convenient and they will forward it for you. All tribunal office address are available on the venues webpage. In England and Wales, you can find the details of the nearest Employment Tribunal office to a particular postcode by entering the postcode in the venue finder.

Sending your claim to the wrong office may cause a delay. If you are not sure which tribunal office to send your form to, or you do not know the postcode for the place where you worked, call our public enquiry line on 0845 795 9775, which is open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

It is your responsibility to ensure that the tribunal office receives your claim within the relevant time limit. In the event of a postal strike, users can still be assured that their forms will reach the Employment Tribunals Service if they submit them electronically.

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Contact the Tribunal

You should quote your case number if you contact the tribunal office by phone or in writing. In correspondence we refer to the person making a claim as the 'claimant' and to the person the complaint is about as the 'respondent'.

You must let the tribunal office know immediately if your contact details change.

If you have a representative (a person you ask to act on your behalf), all correspondence about the case will be sent to them. And you must pass any further requests for information through the representatives and not straight to us.

Can I correspond by email?

Yes - a full list of employment tribunal email addresses is available. You should make sure you quote the case number in any correspondence and in the title bar of the email and send it to the tribunal office dealing with the claim.

Documents you send to the tribunal must be in a 'Word' compatible format. We will not accept documents in other formats. When we receive your email, we will send you an electronic acknowledgement. Do not send further emails or phone the tribunal office unless you have not received an acknowledgement within two working days of sending your email.

You are responsible for making sure that the tribunal receives any correspondence sent by email within the relevant time limit.

If you want us to communicate with you by email whenever possible, you will need to supply a valid email address. When you ask us to communicate with you by email you are agreeing that you check for incoming email at least once every day and that we may pass your e-mail address to other people involved in the claim.

If we send any documents by email we will use enclosures using the software 'Word XP' currently used by our offices. We will send copies of non-electronic documents and documents which need a chairman's signature, for example a judgment, by post.

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