Tribunal Intelligence · Yerty Findings

How often do employment tribunal claims succeed, by claim type?

Applies to England, Wales and Scotland  ·  Last updated November 2026  ·  Source: HMCTS 2025/26, Ministry of Justice ET_3_R Q4 2025/26 and Yerty analysis of published tribunal decisions

Summary of findings

There was no single success rate. In 2025/26, 86.3% of claims ended before a final hearing; among claims decided at a final hearing, 42.1% were successful. In published decisions analysed by Yerty, 47.0% of defended claims succeeded, and the rate ranged from 93.8% for protective award down to 13.0% for protected disclosure by claim type.

Three ways to measure a success rate

If the question is what percentage of filed claims eventually result in a win at a final hearing, the figure is small because most claims never reach that stage. If the question is how often the claimant won when a tribunal decided a contested claim, the answer is roughly 4 in 10 on average.

In 2025/26, 86.3% of claims ended without a final hearing. They may have settled through Acas, been withdrawn, or ended for another reason. That does not mean 86.3% lost: the tribunal never made a final decision on those claims. Among claims decided at a final hearing, 42.1% were successful (1,440 of 3,422 decided claims). Default judgments are excluded because the employer did not defend those claims.

Looking at individual claims in published tribunal decisions, 47.0% of defended claims succeeded (22,801 of 48,548 decided claims in the decisions analysed by Yerty). This differs from the HMCTS figure because it is based on a different dataset and counts individual claims rather than whole cases.

How claims ended nationally

Official disposal figures cover every disposal, across all jurisdictions, as a share of all disposals in the quarter. They are not a forecast for any employer or claim.

Source: Ministry of Justice ET_3_R, Q4 2025/26.

Success rates by claim type

In published tribunal decisions the spread was enormous — wider than the gap between any of the national averages. A single average conceals almost all of it.

Individual claims, not whole cases · types with fewer than 100 decided examples not shown.

Why some claim types were much harder to win

Claims such as unpaid holiday pay or redundancy pay often depend heavily on documents and relatively straightforward facts: was the money owed, and was it paid? Claims such as discrimination and whistleblowing can be harder to prove because the tribunal may need to decide why an employer acted as it did, what people knew, and what motivated a decision. That is one reason the success rates were so different.

Method

Yerty provides information, not legal advice. The figures above describe how past claims ended and are not a prediction for any individual claim. For advice on your circumstances, consider speaking to a qualified employment solicitor.