What Are Your Chances Of Winning In An Employment Tribunal?

What are the odds of winning an Employment Tribunal claim? Well…

The chance of winning the UK National Lottery jackpot is approximately one in 10 million
The odds of being killed by lightning are about one in 300,000
Polls quoted in the New York Times on 8 November 2016 gave 85% chance that Hillary Clinton would win the US election (and we all know what happened to that)

Thinking about making an employment law claim? Then you need to understand your chance of winning.

Happily, it’s a lot better than the examples stated above.

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Outcomes for Employment Tribunal claims

The latest publicly available data we could find is from 2013-14, and shows the following outcomes for Employment Tribunal claims (which have been much the same for years):

53% of claims are withdrawn by the claimant. In most of these cases, this is because the claimant and the respondent have agreed an ‘out-of-court’ settlement.
20% of claims are settled via The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, commonly known as ACAS.
14% of claims are determined by the Employment Tribunal. Of those, half were won by the claimant and half by the respondent (in 2013-14).
8% of people have their claim ‘struck out’. In most of these cases, it is because they failed to obey the tribunal’s case-management orders.
3% of claimants obtain a ‘default judgement’. This happens when the respondent fails to reply to the claim.

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Annual award statistics for 2021/2022

Annual award statistics for 2021/2022 show that:

There were 200 discrimination cases in which compensation was awarded. The maximum award was £228,117 for a race discrimination case.
The second highest discrimination award was for £225,893 in a disability discrimination case
The highest award for an unfair dismissal case was £165,000 (this may have involved an element of whistleblowing or discrimination it is unusual for an unfair dismissal award at this level due to a statutory cap)

Scroll down to see average amounts awards for discrimination claims that year.

“Paul was very thorough and helpful and successfully brought my case to an end.”
Margaret C

Total number of claims

Like the tribunals, we deal with a wide variety of cases here at Paul Doran Law. Here are the total number of claims* that went through the tribunals in 2021/22, in decreasing order:

Unfair dismissal 23,904
Working time 20,867
Unauthorised deductions from wages 17,816
Age discrimination 15,336
Breach of contract 14,836
Equal pay 8,509
Disability discrimination 7,430
Redundancy (inform & consult) 7,072
Redundancy (pay) 6,543
Sex discrimination 5,172
Race discrimination 4,175
Whistleblowing 3,128
Part-time regulations 2,766
Pregnancy detriment/dismissal 1,435
Written terms & conditions 1,114
TUPE (inform & consult) 1,035
Written pay statement 887
Religion or belief discrimination 733
Sexual orientation discrimination 438
Written reasons for dismissal 356
National minimum wage 269
Other 43,057
Total 117,926

From this you can see the most common reason employees take their employer to court is unfair dismissal. Working time and unfair deductions are also common problems.

We imagine this reflects the reality of the workplace and not just what most often comes to court. Unfortunately, there are still many poor employers out there not doing what they should to pay and protect their employees. We’re here to help those employees!

*Note that the total claims figure is the number of ET1s accepted. ET1 is the Employment Tribunal claim form 1. Many ET1s contain more than one complaint, so the figures in each column add up to more than the total claims.

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Average amounts awarded

Every case is unique, so looking at the average amounts awarded might not apply to you. However, the data might give you an intriguing insight, so here are the amounts awarded for discrimination claims in 2021/22:

Unfair dismissal £13,541
Race discrimination £27,607
Sex discrimination £24,630
Disability discrimination £25,172
Religion/belief discrimination £19,709
Age discrimination £18,623
Sexual orientation discrimination £32,680

Remember, an average can hide the high and low extremes and be distorted by a particularly high or low award.

About us: At Paul Doran Law, we specialise in employment law – this includes settlement and severance matters as well as claims about equal pay, discrimination, unfair or constructive dismissal, and unpaid wages or holiday pay.

We’re on your side: We only act for employees who find themselves in a dispute with their employers.

About you: Whether you work for a multi-national corporation, public sector, private sector or small employer, we can help. We act for clients in Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland.

Easy payment options: You’ll have a choice of ways to fund your claim, including no-win, no-fee. Often, your employer will pay our fee.

What next: Give us a call today for friendly, clear and honest advice about your case. The initial consultation is FREE and with no obligation.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service data

You might find it interesting to dig a little deeper into more recent statistics published by HM Courts & Tribunals Service.

In Q2 2022, the Employment Tribunal received 7,800 single claim receipts and disposed of 7,100 single claim cases. They say single claim receipts have now returned to levels seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, having increased by 6% compared to the previous year.

At the end of September, there were 45,000 single claim cases outstanding. This continues to rise having passed the peak levels of Q2 2009 (when it reached 36,000).

There were also 10,000 multiple claim receipts, with 5,500 disposals, and the outstanding caseload stood at 448,000 at the end of September.

Multiple claims tend to be more volatile as they can be skewed by a high number of claims against a single employer. For example, a dismissal judgment was issued in December 2021 for 48,000 British Airways claims covering 71,000 jurisdictions.

From this, you can see how busy the Employment Tribunals are!

What’s more, they transitioned to a new database between March to May 2021. During the migration period it was not possible for them to provide full results from both databases. This means they can’t present data for the financial year 2021/22.

They say checks are ongoing, and that we have to be careful about making comparisons in the statistical results before and after migration.

The outstanding caseload may seem high, but it’s reduced this year thanks to the increased number of available hearing rooms and the continuing availability of remote hearings.

“Paul Doran Law were absolutely fantastic. Any questions I had were answered almost instantly. They would email me within the hour and ask if I wanted them to explain the answers by email or in a phone call – it was brilliant.”
Caroline R

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About HM Courts & Tribunals Service

Here are some facts and figures about HMCTS according to their 2021/22 annual report:

They have around 19,000 members of staff
They operate from 336 venues and 21 admin sites
They handled over 4 million cases
They sat a total of 559,888 days across their courts and tribunals, of which 98,604 were sat in the Crown Court (that last is a 47% increase from 2020/21)
They held over 2.2 million hearings, of which 42% primarily used audio or video hearings technology, 46% were in part or fully held face-to-face and 12% were predominately paper based

Note that HMCTS provide services in the criminal, civil and family courts as well as tribunals. That includes dealing with traffic offences, TV licences, divorce, probate, social security, child support and civil claims as well as employment law.

The graph shows the annual total number of employment tribunals receipts over time, standing at 117,926 from April 2020 to March 2021. It excludes data from 2021/22 because of the new database system.

Graph

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Summary: Employment tribunal – your chances of winning

As you can see, most claims don’t reach the Tribunal at all. In around two-thirds of cases, claimants walk away with a negotiated settlement.

If you’re considering making a claim, ask us for a free consultation, and we will let you know your chances. Tribunal litigation is a skill, so – although you have the right to represent yourself if you want – you have a better chance of winning when you have a legal representative on your side.

“I feel strongly that Paul cares about clients.”
Pamela R

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Need help? Employment tribunal – your chances of winning

For a FREE assessment of your claim, call 0808 168 7288 or fill in the contact form on the top right of this page.

We have already helped thousands of people to win millions of pounds in compensation.

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