How long do
tribunal cases take?
Most of the answer is waiting, not hearing. Here is what a tribunal claim is actually made of, and which parts stretch.
Drawn from published decided cases and official HMCTS figures — this describes what happened in cases like these, not what will happen in any one claim.
A claim is not one wait. It is a sequence of them, and only some are inside anyone's control.
People usually ask for a single number. The reason there isn't one is that a claim passes through stages with very different clocks — two are set by law, one is set by tribunal capacity, and that last one is where most of the time goes.
Acas early conciliation
Before a claim can be filed, you must notify Acas and be issued a certificate. Conciliation itself is voluntary — you can decline to take part — but the notification step is not optional, and the clock on your claim deadline pauses while it runs.
Claim filed, employer responds
Once the ET1 is accepted, the tribunal sends it to the employer, who has a set period to file their ET3 response. What they say here shapes everything after it: an admitted dismissal and a fully disputed discrimination claim take different routes from this point.
Case management
A judge sets the timetable — what each side must disclose, when witness statements are exchanged, and how long the final hearing needs. Some claims get a preliminary hearing first to settle a threshold question, such as whether a claim was brought in time or whether someone was legally an employee.
Waiting to be listed
Nothing is being decided here. The case is waiting for a slot long enough to hear it, in front of the right panel, in a region with its own queue. This is the single largest stretch in most contested claims, and it is the one that varies most between one case and the next.
Final hearing and judgment
Judgment is sometimes given at the end of the hearing. Often it is reserved, meaning it is written up and sent out later. If compensation is disputed, remedy can be dealt with at a separate hearing after that — so the hearing date is not always the end date.
Most claims never reach stage 04. They settle or are withdrawn earlier, which pulls every published average down. A figure covering all disposals answers a different question from “how long if this is fought to a hearing” — and the two should never be read as the same number.
Which parts of a case tend to stretch it
Pick a factor to see how it usually plays out, and at which stage it bites.
Discrimination claims run longer than dismissal claims
A straightforward unfair dismissal claim turns on a narrower set of facts and usually needs a shorter hearing. A discrimination claim often involves a course of conduct over months or years, more witnesses, and more documents — so it needs a longer listing, and long listings are harder to find space for.
The mechanism
Length of hearing is decided at case management. Once a case needs several days rather than one, it joins a slower queue.
Where the timing figures come from
Official statistics and published decisions answer different questions. It is worth knowing which one you are looking at.
Official tribunal statistics
HMCTS publishes quarterly figures covering every claim the system disposes of, however it ends. Good for the shape of the system as a whole.
- Overall time to clearance, by claim type
- Caseload and receipts over time
- Compare claim types against each other
Where it stops: it covers all disposals together, so it cannot tell you how long a case took when it was fought through to a hearing.
Open official timelines →Timing from decided cases
Published judgments carry dates. Across 160,000+ decision documents, those dates show how long contested claims actually ran, and where the time went.
- Stage timing from claims that reached judgment
- Filter toward claim types closer to yours
- The judgment behind every figure
Where it stops: only decided cases are published, and most claims settle or are withdrawn — so this describes the contested path, not the typical one.
Create a free account →Neither source gives you a date
Both describe what has already happened across many cases. Neither can say when one particular claim will finish.
Most of the caseload is invisible
Settled and withdrawn claims leave no published judgment, so they sit outside any case-level timing figure.
Your own file still drives it
Amendments, disclosure disputes, and everyone's availability can stretch or shorten any range you read online.
Start exploring published tribunal decisions.
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Describes published decisions; does not predict any individual case.
Outcome Report
How often similar claims succeeded — national disposals and published ruling outcomes.
View Outcome Report →Award Benchmark Report
What awards looked like when one was made — median, range and composition.
View Award Benchmark →Ask Yerty
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