Tom’s Essential Guide To Submitting Your ET1 Claim Form

Having now concluded the ACAS Early Conciliation process and received your numbered ACAS certificate, you can now begin legal proceedings and advance your claim at Employment Tribunal.

Most typically, the majority of people choose to do this online via the gov.uk website. You can begin the process of making your claim to an Employment Tribunal via this link.

Here you be you will be asked to fill out your ET1 Claim Form. An example of which you can view below:

You as ‘the claimant’ will need to submit your personal details, alongside details of your claim against your employer (referred to as ‘the respondent’.

The information required will include details relating to: the dates of your employment, salary and your hours.

PLEASE NOTE: The most important information will relate to the basis of your claim and the type of claim you are seeking to bring against your employer.

This will be required under section 8.2 titled ‘Set out the background and details of your claim’. You should not under estimate the importance of this section when filling out your ET1 Claim Form as this is where you set out for the tribunal:

• The legal basis of your claim
• The factual basis of your claim

Under the Employment Law section of doihaveacase.co.uk, you will find a lot of useful content that you can reference to help you here. There are pages that you should read in relation to advancing claims of: Unfair Dismissal, Wrongful Dismissal, Constructive Dismissal, Unlawful Deduction of Wages, Discrimination at Work, and many more…

Please review this information carefully as you need to be clear (and this clarity will be received well by a judge, and show the other side you are confident of your position!) on those legal tests to which your claim relates.

Simply put, if you are advancing a claim based on discrimination, are you alleging direct or indirect discrimination?

In law, both are covered by the Equality Act 2010 but direct discrimination will fall under section 13, whereas the legal test for indirect discrimination is under section 19.

By reviewing this information carefully before drafting your submission, you will not only understand the legal tests that will apply to your claim, but as importantly, what you will need to prove to be successful at tribunal.

Although you are not expected to complete this section in any particular format it is useful to lay it out so that when it is reviewed by either the tribunal or the respondent, it is clear to understand.

Specifying all relevant dates and keeping your submission in chronological order is important. It can really help if you set out the detail under numbered paragraph and sub paragraphs.

If you find yourself struggling to include all your information within the space provided online, you can attach further details to your form by way of an .rtf attachment. ‘.rtf’ stands for Rich Format Text and is a relatively simple word processing tool.

Before pressing send, please make sure that where you have used it, your .rtf is actually attached before submitting your completed form.

On completing your ET1 Claim Form

Now you have filled out all the necessary information it is really important to review your submission before clicking send.

Make sure what you have provided is factually correct and that you have not forgotten to include anything important that may later be beneficial to your case.

Also, ensure you have laid it out in chronological order so it can be easily read, and that you have included specific dates as reference points.

And finally, check for spelling mistakes and typos. You really want to convey that you recognise how important this document is, and how seriously you take your claim.

Once submitted, you will then receive a confirmation that the tribunal has ‘issued your claim’.

As you are no doubt aware Time Limitations are very strict when advancing a claim at Employment Tribunal. As such, this confirmation is an important document as it be be referenced when your solicitor (or the respondent) review the key dates relating to your claim.

If there is any potential that your claim is out of time, the other side will use this to defend against your claim. It may also seriously effect your chances of securing legal representation on a no win no fee basis.

After you have submitted your form

Once your ET1 Claim Form has been submitted, the respondent has 28 days to defend it.

In the same way as you began the legal process by completing and ET1, the respondent now has to submit their defence by completing ET3 form. Once received the Employment Tribunal will make a copy available to you so that you, or your legal representative can analyse the details of their response.

Having a solicitor will increase your chances of success

doihaveacase.co.uk has a team of highly experienced employment law solicitors who can represent you throughout the entire tribunal process. In the first instance, where we believe you have a strong case, we will always be happy to consider representing you on a no win no fee basis. If you appoint us at the outset of the process, your solicitor can complete and submit your ET1 Claim Form for you.

You can view our no win no fee policy for more information.

However, if you prefer we can also help you prepare for specific parts of the tribunal process on a fixed fee basis. For example, for one of our solicitors to prepare or amend an ET1 Claim Form, you could expect to be charged from £500 – £1,000 + VAT (dependant upon case complexity).

To obtain an initial assessment of your case, please feel free to speak to one of our knowledgeable team today on 0203 838 0781 or 0203 838 0781.

Alternatively, you can submit details of your claim via our simple online enquiry form. Once received, you can expect a response via phone, email or text within 48 hours.