Defending A Claim

You will usually have 28 days from date you received the claim form (ET1) to submit your response to the employment tribunal. The claim notification sent to you by the tribunal should include a copy of the claims made by the current or former employee(s) as well as the date by which you need to respond. It is of vital importance that you do not miss this deadline as you could be denied the opportunity to actively participate in the proceedings if you do. It may be possible to obtain an extension to the deadline for submitting a response to the tribunal and you should speak to one of our specialist employment solicitors as soon as possible if you think this will be necessary.

You may be able to fund the defending of an employment claim through your business insurance and such insurance will often cover the legal fees to defend the claim. Also, if you are unsuccessful in defending a claim made against your business by a current or former employee at tribunal, insurance may cover the cost of the award that the tribunal orders the employer to pay to the employee.

No, unlike in the civil or county courts, the losing party is not required to pay the winner’s costs other than in some exceptional circumstances. This means that your business will more than likely only have to pay its own legal fees irrespective of whether you are successful in defending the claim or not.