To some degree, the answer to this is, “it depends”. Anyone wanting to bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal must generally do so within three months of the date of dismissal/resignation or the act complained of (although there is some ability for that deadline to be extended in certain circumstances). Before you can submit a claim to the Employment Tribunal, you must contact ACAS and enter into Early Conciliation via th website form, which can then extend the deadline for submitting a claim. The standard Early Conciliation period, which can be used to see if your claim can be settled, lasts for one month and can be extended once by up to 14 days.
Once the Early Conciliation period has been completed, you can submit your claim. The Employment Tribunal will serve it on your employer and unless an extension of time is agreed, they then have 28 days to respond.
Thereafter, the timeline for your claim is subject to any case management orders which may be given. There are various stages to every claim including the exchanging of relevant documents, the preparation of a schedule of loss, the drafting of witness statements and, of course, the final hearing. A timetable will be set between the parties and in agreement with the Tribunal (usually at a preliminary hearing, which will often be by telephone) for each of these stages and penalties can be imposed for a failure to comply with the timetable. The listing of the final hearing will be subject to the workload of the Tribunal, the number and complexity of issues to be determined and the availability of witnesses but you could reasonably expect it to take six months to a year to get a hearing date. Judgment may be reserved following the hearing and may not be sent for another month or so, though it must be sent within a reasonable time.
We have a wealth of experience within the team of advising employees on claims and representing them in the Employment Tribunal. If you are contemplating bringing a claim against your employer, it is important that you get advice as early as possible in the process so you can prepare fully and be in the best possible position to be successful. We would be happy to explore the different funding options with you.