tribunal claims

When commencing proceedings in the Employment Tribunal it is necessary for a Claim Form to be completed, and submitted to the relevant Tribunal for processing. The Claim Form must be completed accurately, as this is the basis of the claim that is being brought, and therefore must contain all of the details relating to the circumstances that gave rise to the claim. Once a claim has been submitted the person making the claim is referred to as the Claimant, and the person or company defending the claim is referred to as the Respondent.

Upon receipt of a Claim Form the Tribunal office will process the claim and decide if it is to be accepted. Once a claim has been accepted an acknowledgment will be sent to the Claimant, and a copy of the Claim Form will be sent to the Respondent.

The Respondent has 28 days from receiving the Claim Form to submit a Response Form either admitting or denying the claim. The Tribunal will normally clarify the date by which the form must be returned in its correspondence to avoid any confusion. If it is unlikely that the Respondent will be able to comply with this requirement within the first 28 days, an application for an extension to the time limit for filing the Response Form should be made to the Tribunal.

The consequences of failing to submit a Response Form in time and without having agreed an extension could result in the Tribunal preventing the Respondent from taking any further part in the proceedings.

Once the Tribunal has received the Respondent’s Response Form this will then be sent to the Claimant for their information.

ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) are notified every time a claim is submitted to the Tribunal. A copy of the Claim Form will be sent to an ACAS officer who will be the designated officer for that particular claim. The role of the ACAS officer is to facilitate settlement between the parties, in order to assist them in settling the dispute. ACAS are only involved in cases for a limited period of time, and it is therefore advisable to consider the issue of settlement early.

In the event that the claim is not settled it will be necessary for the parties and their respective witnesses to attend at the Tribunal to give evidence at a final hearing. The case will be heard at the Tribunal office where the claim was issued, and will be heard by either a Chairperson sitting alone or with the assistance of two lay members.

Evidence will be given during the course of the hearing, and at the conclusion of the evidence the Tribunal may deliver their judgment. The Tribunal may wish to consider matters in greater depth before deciding a case and may decide to reserve judgment. This means that the judgment will be given in writing and sent to the parties.

In the event that the Claimant is successful the Tribunal will either deal with the issue of remedy and compensation at the final hearing, or it may alternatively list the case for a remedy hearing at a later date.