Employment tribunal outcomes

Great Britain: the route through a tribunal

• Acas early conciliation: the worker must tell Acas before making a claim. The time limit is paused during Acas conciliation ¹.
• Claim: the time limit is 6 months if the problem happened on or after 1 October 2026 and 3 months if it happened before. For unfair dismissal the clock starts when employment ended ¹.
• Response: the employer usually has to reply in writing within 28 days of getting the claim form ².
• Preliminary hearing: a judge can decide whether all or part of the claim can go ahead and set the date of the full hearing ².
• End of the case: the claim can settle through Acas or privately, be withdrawn in writing, or go to a full hearing. If the employer does not reply, the tribunal may decide the case without a hearing ².

Great Britain: what the official figures show

The Ministry of Justice publishes tribunal statistics each quarter. For the financial year April 2025 to March 2026, employment tribunals received 50,000 single claims and disposed of 26,000. 64,000 single claims were open at the end of March 2026 ⁴. Multiple claims numbered 44,000 received and 19,000 disposed of, with 467,000 open ⁴.

A year earlier, in 2024/25, single claim receipts were 42,000, disposals 32,000 and the open caseload 45,000 at the end of March 2025 ⁵. Figures above 10,000 are rounded to the nearest 1,000 ^4,5.

The two latest annual bulletins do not publish a breakdown of disposals by outcome, such as conciliated settlements, withdrawals or success at hearing, or compensation award figures ^4,5. The 2024/25 bulletin notes that tribunal data is split across legacy and new case management systems ⁵. Any older outcome percentage should be read with its period.

Great Britain: after a win

The tribunal can order the losing party to pay compensation or, where appropriate, give the worker their job back ³. Compensation depends on the type of case, and some cases have limits ³. The respondent has 42 days to appeal, and the award cannot be enforced during an appeal ³.

If an employer does not pay, the worker can ask the Fair Work Agency to contact them. An employer that does not respond to the notice within 28 days may have to pay a fine ³. In England and Wales a court route is open, including a High Court enforcement officer at a cost of £71 or a county court bailiff at £83, both added to the debt ³.

United States: EEOC charges

A federal job discrimination complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is made as a charge. The EEOC notifies the employer within 10 days of the filing date ⁷. Mediation takes place only if both sides agree. The EEOC says it is often able to settle a charge faster through mediation, usually in less than 3 months ⁷. An investigation takes about 10 months on average ⁷.

If the EEOC cannot determine that the law was violated, it issues a Notice of Right to Sue, which lets the worker file a lawsuit ⁷. If it finds the law may have been violated, it tries to reach a voluntary settlement. If that fails, EEOC legal staff, or the Department of Justice in certain cases, decide whether to sue ⁷.

In fiscal year 2025 the EEOC processed 88,201 new charges and resolved 90,743, a 4% increase on fiscal year 2024 ⁶. It secured US$660 million for 17,680 people, including US$528 million through its pre-litigation enforcement process and US$27 million for 2,505 people through litigation ⁶.