Unfair dismissal. Get what you’re due.
Tribunal procedure isn’t County Court. ACAS Early Conciliation is mandatory, the ET1 form is its own beast, and your 3-month window expires fast. CourtPilot is built for the tribunal track — eight specialist AI agents drafting your case from the day you were dismissed.
Unfair dismissal · 8 yrs service · £42k salary
Four claim types — and the
specialist drafting each needs.
Tribunals are subject-matter specialists. The ET1 form for an unfair dismissal looks nothing like a discrimination claim. We have separate AI agents for each.
Unfair dismissal
For employees with 2+ years’ service. Sacked without a fair reason or a fair process. Average award £14,000; uncapped if dismissal was for whistleblowing or discrimination.
Discrimination
Age, race, sex, disability, religion, sexual orientation, pregnancy. Equality Act 2010, ss.13–19. No minimum service required. No statutory cap on the award.
Unpaid wages
Unlawful deductions, unpaid notice, holiday pay not paid, bonuses owed. ERA 1996 s.13. Three-month time-bar from the day the pay was due.
Redundancy disputes
Disputed selection, no consultation, sham redundancy that’s actually dismissal. Statutory minimum, plus uplift if process was unfair.
Award ranges from MOJ Employment Tribunal statistics 2024 (median figures by claim type). Outliers are common — discrimination claims regularly exceed £100k where loss of earnings is significant. Your assessment will give a personalised range based on your salary, service, and the strength of the claim.
Four stages. All within 6 months.
Tribunals move faster than the County Court. Three-month claim window, ACAS sits in front, and from ET1 to hearing is usually 5–8 months.
ACAS Early Conciliation
Mandatory before you file. Free, confidential. ACAS contacts the employer, sees if they’ll settle. Pauses your 3-month clock.
Submit the ET1 form
Online filing through gov.uk. The ET1 is the tribunal’s claim form — facts, claims, the remedy you want. Filing is free.
Employer’s ET3 response
Employer has 28 days to file the ET3 (their defence). Tribunal sets directions — what evidence, when to disclose.
The final hearing
Witness statements exchanged, bundle prepared, hearing booked. Single judge or three-judge panel. 1 day for unpaid wages; 3–5 days for complex cases.
ACAS Early Conciliation is mandatory — even if you’d rather just file.
You can’t lodge an ET1 without a valid ACAS reference. The conciliation period pauses your 3-month time-bar — so it costs you nothing in time, and about 1 in 3 cases settle here without a hearing.
Eight agents. One case file.
Tribunal procedure is too varied for a single generalist model. We’ve trained eight specialists — each one expert at one bit of the procedure.
Unfair Dismissal specialist
Drafts your ET1 from the facts of the dismissal — fair-reason analysis, procedure failures, BHS v Burchell test.
ERA 1996 s.98Discrimination case-builder
Identifies the protected characteristic, builds the comparator analysis, calculates injury-to-feelings.
EQUALITY ACT 2010Compensation calculator
Basic award + compensatory award + future losses + Vento bands for injury to feelings, where applicable.
VENTO BANDS · UPDATED 04.25ACAS conciliation prep
Briefs you for the ACAS conciliator call — what to say, what to settle for, how to read the room.
EARLY CONCILIATIONDocument review
Reads contracts, dismissal letters, grievance correspondence. Flags procedural breaches and the dismissal-letter wording that wins or loses cases.
EVIDENCE ANALYSISWitness statement drafter
Drafts your statement in the format required by ET Rules — chronological, paragraph-numbered, statement of truth.
ET RULES 2013Tribunal bundle assembler
Compiles, indexes, and paginates your bundle ready for the hearing. Three copies — judge, employer, you.
BUNDLE READY · 14 DAYS PRE-HEARINGHearing-day rehearsal
Mock cross-examination on your facts — anticipates the employer’s lawyer’s questions and helps you prepare answers.
DAY-OF PREPAn indicative award
before you file.
Knowing what your case is worth is half the negotiation. Our calculator gives you a personalised range — and shows what each element comes from.
The ET is a different forum.
So it needs different tools.
The Employment Tribunal sits outside the County Court system. Different rules, different forms, different remedies. We built a dedicated product instead of bolting ET onto our County Court toolkit.
Employment Tribunal Toolkit
County Court Toolkit
Same procedure as a barrister. A fraction of the cost.
A solicitor-led ET case typically bills £150–£300/hr — and from intake to hearing usually runs 40–80 hours. CourtPilot bundles the same procedural output for £147, one-off.
- ✓ET1 form drafted from your case facts, with the right cause of action named
- ✓ACAS conciliation prep — talking points, settlement bands, what to say
- ✓Compensation calculator with personalised range and breakdown
- ✓Witness statement & tribunal bundle in the format ET Rules require
- ✓Eight specialist AI agents — one for each part of the procedure
- ✓Hearing-day prep with mock cross-examination based on your facts
Includes everything above. 30-day money-back. No subscription. No extras to upgrade.
Illustrative example based on the kind of outcome a strong pregnancy-discrimination case can have when settled in ACAS early conciliation. Not a specific customer.
Things employees ask before lodging.
What’s the 3-month time-bar — exactly?+
From the date of the dismissal (or the act of discrimination) you have 3 months minus 1 day to either lodge an ET1 or notify ACAS. Notify ACAS and the clock pauses. The clock restarts when ACAS issues your certificate — and you have at least 1 month from the certificate date to file. Miss it and the tribunal will not hear your claim, save in exceptional circumstances.
Do I need 2 years’ service for an unfair-dismissal claim?+
For most unfair dismissal claims, yes — you need 2 years’ continuous service. But there are 11 exceptions (“automatic unfair” categories), including dismissal for: whistleblowing, pregnancy, asserting a statutory right, trade-union activity, raising a health-and-safety issue. None require any service. Our free assessment screens for these.
Can the employer make me sign an NDA at ACAS?+
Standard practice — most ACAS settlements include a confidentiality clause covering the existence and terms of the agreement. Recent guidance (2024) requires NDAs to carve out the right to report criminal offences and to make protected disclosures. Don’t sign anything you don’t understand; ACAS conciliators can explain what each clause does.
What if I’ve already missed the 3-month deadline?+
The tribunal can extend time if it considers it “not reasonably practicable” to have filed in time — but the bar is high. Don’t assume yours qualifies. Get the assessment done first; we’ll flag the time-bar issue and whether an extension argument is realistic. Some discrimination claims have slightly more flexible “just and equitable” extensions.
Is there any cost to file with the tribunal?+
No. ET fees were abolished by the Supreme Court in R (UNISON) v Lord Chancellor (2017). Filing an ET1, attending the hearing, getting a judgment — all free. The government refunded £33m in fees previously collected. Your only costs are CourtPilot’s £147 toolkit and (if you use one) a solicitor.
Will the employer pay my costs if I win?+
Usually not. ETs operate on a “no costs” rule — each side pays their own. Costs are only awarded where one side has acted vexatiously, abusively, disruptively or unreasonably. The flip side: you almost never have to worry about paying the employer’s costs if you lose.
Find out what your case
is actually worth.
Free ET assessment. We’ll calculate your indicative compensation range, identify the cause of action, and tell you whether the 3-month clock is still on your side.