If a tribunal claim lands on your desk, what you do next really matters.
You have 28 days to act.
And how you act can be the difference between successfully defending the claim and paying a large sum of money you potentially can’t afford.
For most small business owners, it’s territory they’ve never been in before.
So, what do you do if a claim happens tomorrow?
Let’s look through your options.
What happens before the claim comes through
Before an employee can take you to tribunal, they have to go through ACAS first to try and reach a settlement without going further.
The employee doesn’t have to settle, but they can’t skip this step.
When you hear from ACAS, that’s your earliest warning that a claim may be on its way and your first chance to resolve things before the formal process begins.
If conciliation doesn’t resolve it, the employee files their claim. You then have 28 days to respond in writing. Miss that window and a judgment can be entered against you automatically.
Your written response is not a box-ticking exercise. It’s the foundation of your entire defence. Everything you say in it has to match your supporting evidence, so it needs to be right first time.
After that, both sides prepare and share their documents, witness statements and a timeline of events ahead of a final hearing.
One more thing worth knowing: discrimination and whistleblowing claims now make up 60% of all cases and carry the highest payouts. Hearings in some parts of the UK are being scheduled into 2027 and 2028, so a claim could end up hanging over your business for a really long time.
Why going it alone is risky and difficult
It can be tempting to deal with a tribunal claim without HR support, whether that’s to save money, because you don’t know who to reach out to or some other reason.
But I can’t stress enough how much more expensive and stressful it can be by not getting professional help.
A few stats on payout costs if you lose the tribunal:
- Average payout for unfair dismissal in 2023/24: £13,749.
- Average payout for sex discrimination: £53,403.
- Average payout for age discrimination: £102,891.
And, from January 2027, the cap on unfair dismissal payouts will be removed entirely. Those figures will only go up.
On top of any payout, there’s also the management time you lose dealing with the process.
What professional help with tribunal cases looks like
When you bring in an HR consultant from the moment a claim arrives, someone reviews it straight away and works out your strongest position before anything is filed.
An HR professional will also:
- Draft your written response so that it’s consistent with your evidence from the outset
- Advise you at each stage on whether settling early makes more financial sense than going to a hearing
- Prepare your full document bundle, witness statements and hearing paperwork to the standard the tribunal expects
- Identify whether the claim has grounds that could be challenged or struck out before it gets further
- Make sure that you don’t miss any procedural deadlines that could automatically go against you
Business owners I work with also really value the reassurance and clarity that can come from having a professional by your side the whole way through.
Don’t wait to get help
We support small business owners through the whole tribunal process. That includes advising on your response, preparing your documents and representing you at hearings.
The sooner you get support, the better your position will be.
Received a tribunal claim or heard from ACAS about a potential claim? Get in touch today and we can talk it through confidentially.