The Tribunal system is on its knees (and small businesses are paying for the limp)

ended 11. January 2026

It’s bad enough waiting a year for a hearing. Now some businesses are only finding out their case has been postponed when they log into the portal to upload the bundle. That’s not a system. That’s a surprise party nobody asked for.

Let’s be honest. If you end up anywhere near an Employment Tribunal, it’s rarely because you’ve got loads of spare time, money, or emotional bandwidth. Yet the UK Tribunal system is now so clogged that even doing the right thing can leave you stuck in limbo for months, sometimes years.

The latest Ministry of Justice stats (July to September 2025) show 515,000 open Employment Tribunal claims. That’s 52,000 single claims and 463,000 multiple claims sitting in the queue.

How long does an Employment Tribunal take right now?

In plain English: longer than most small businesses can comfortably carry.

A basic unfair dismissal case is often around 12 months end-to-end, and more complex discrimination cases can run 18 to 24 months. In some places, longer hearings are being listed out to 2028.

That’s not “a delay”. That’s a whole business cycle with a legal cloud over your head.

And it’s about to get worse

Two things are stacking up:

ACAS Early Conciliation can now run for up to 12 weeks (for notifications on or after 1 December 2025).

Planned reforms are expected to extend many claim time limits from 3 months to 6 months, expected October 2026.

So issues can surface later, evidence is colder, people have moved on, and everyone is more dug in.

The admin chaos nobody warns you about

And here’s the bit that makes employers want to throw their laptops into the sea.

Anecdotally, I’m hearing more reports that routine tribunal admin is going astray. Postponement orders, relisted hearings, or delays for reasons as basic as no judge available are not always landing in people’s inboxes. Employers and claimants only discover the case has been pushed back when they log into the portal, often at the worst possible moment, like when they’re uploading the bundle and working to a deadline.

If that’s happening, it’s not just annoying. It’s a fairness issue. You cannot run a justice process where the first time you learn your case has moved is because you happened to log in that morning.

False claims and serial claimants: the awkward bit nobody wants to say out loud

Most claimants are genuine. Full stop.

But the system also has to deal with a small minority of repeat or low-merit claims that still chew up time. One headline example reported recently is a claimant described as having brought 54 tribunal claims over 10 years, with the latest struck out as scandalous or vexatious with no reasonable prospect of success.

You don’t need loads of cases like that to cause chaos. When the system is already drowning, even a small number can block the pipe for everyone else, including genuine claimants.

The cost to employers isn’t the payout. It’s the grind.

The commonly quoted estimate (from a British Chambers of Commerce figure) is around £8,500 to defend a tribunal claim on average.

Then add time. Birketts research found employers spending an average of 4.8 weeks purely handling tribunal claims.

For a small business, 4.8 weeks isn’t “admin”. That’s you not selling, not leading, not fixing the actual problems in the business, because you’re busy building bundles and writing timelines about what someone said in March.

What does this mean for small businesses?

You’re living with uncertainty for 12 to 18 months (sometimes longer).

There’s more pressure to settle weak claims just to make it stop.

Managers get nervous about performance conversations because everything feels like it might end up as a claim.

Genuine employee concerns take longer to resolve too, which helps absolutely nobody.

And if basic admin comms are unreliable, you get last minute panic, missed prep time, and procedural mess.

What would a better solution look like?

Employees still need a route to raise concerns and enforce their rights. But the current setup is not sustainable. We need:

Proper triage at the front door

Straightforward wage, holiday, notice claims should be fast-tracked. Complex discrimination cases should get specialist handling.

Stronger early case management

Use deposit orders and strike-outs earlier for claims with no reasonable prospects, while protecting genuine whistleblowers.

A practical way to manage serial abuse

Where someone repeatedly brings weak claims, there should be a clearer permission-to-proceed style control, so one person can’t clog the system for everyone else.

Actual resourcing

More judges, more caseworkers, better listing. Otherwise, we’re just adding rights onto a system that can’t deliver them.

Basic admin that works

If the portal is the source of truth, portal updates need automatic, reliable notifications to both sides. “Log in and find out you’ve been delayed” is not good enough.

Questions small business owners will have opinions on

If you got hit with a claim tomorrow, could you cope with 12 to 18 months of uncertainty?
Have you ever settled something you believed was weak purely because the process felt like punishment?
Should there be a fast-track route for simple money claims like holiday, notice, and wages?
With time limits potentially moving to 6 months, should employers be forced to keep more records for longer?
If defending a claim costs thousands plus weeks of leadership time, who is the current system actually serving?
If postponements are happening and notifications are not consistently reaching people, what’s the plan to stop procedural chaos?

Sources (UK) with URLs

MoJ / HMCTS – Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: July to September 2025 (open claims, receipts, disposals)
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2025/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2025

ACAS – Early Conciliation: how it works (12 weeks from 1 December 2025)
https://www.acas.org.uk/early-conciliation/how-early-conciliation-works

Doyle Clayton – Employment Law Guide 2026: Employment tribunal time limits (3 to 6 months, expected Oct 2026)
https://www.doyleclayton.co.uk/resources/news/employment-law-guide-2026-employment-tribunal-time-limits/

Employment Tribunal decision (Johnson v London Borough of Harrow & Rowlands)
https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions/mr-j-johnson-v-london-borough-of-harrow-and-c-rowlands-3301610-slash-2025

Judgment PDF (Johnson v London Borough of Harrow & Rowlands)
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68947208586f9c9360656956/Mr_J_Johnson_v_London_Borough_of_Harrow__1__and_other_3301610_2025_PPH_Judgment.pdf

Reported coverage re “54 claims in 10 years” (example)
https://www.hrgrapevine.com/content/article/2026-01-05-the-worker-who-has-fought-54-tribunals-in-10-years
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/30/youth-worker-loses-54th-employment-tribunal-in-10-years/

Average employer defence cost (£8,500, cited as a BCC figure)
https://www.cityam.com/tribunals-cost-firms-8500-each-says-bcc/

Birketts research – average 4.8 weeks spent handling tribunal claims
https://www.birketts.co.uk/news/research-shows-businesses-lose-over-a-month-to-employment-claims/

People Management write-up of the Birketts research (4.8 weeks)
https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1906230/costly-burden-businesses-spend-two-weeks-per-year-dealing-tribunal-claims-research-suggests

Timeline / delays commentary (including longer listings to 2028 in some regions)
https://bto.co.uk/blog/employment-tribunal-backlog-how-employers-can-avoid-joining-the-queue/
https://scotland.minsterlaw.co.uk/faqs/how-long-does-an-employment-tribunal-case-take-to-complete/

2 responses from the Newspage community
Copy all

Star Quote

Copy

Editor

Kate Underwood

Founder & Chief People Strategist at Kate Underwood HR and Training

Handing out more employment rights while Tribunals are on their knees is like printing new tickets for a train that isn’t running. Most small business owners I work with aren’t rubbing their hands at the thought of a tribunal. They’re trying to run payroll, keep customers happy, and stop Dave from burning the toast in the staff kitchen. So when a claim lands, it’s already stressful. Then the system drags on for 12–18 months, sometimes longer, and hearings get bumped with so little warning you only find out when you log in to upload the bundle. That’s not justice. That’s admin roulette. And now the Employment Rights Bill wants to add more rights. Fine. But without a tribunal system that can actually deliver decisions, that isn’t progressive. It’s political window-dressing with real-world fallout. Tip: write everything down, keep records longer, and check the portal weekly. Paperwork beats panic.

Colin Crooks MBE HonDsc

CEO at Intentionality

The tribunal system is broken. Your HR doesn't have to be.
Waiting 18 months for a hearing is mental torture. The uncertainty, the cost, the distraction just grinds you down, even if eventually you win. You can't control the backlog, but you can control how much damage it does to your wellbeing.
Good processes and solid record keeping are your best defence. Write everything down. Every conversation, every warning, every decision. Memory fades, goodwill evaporates, but records don't. If it's in a notebook, keep the notebook. If time limits stretch to six months, your evidence needs to last that long too, even a dated note from March beats "I think we talked about it" every time.
Also, try mediation as soon as you see a sign of a claim. It's faster, cheaper, and if it still ends up at tribunal, you've shown you tried. Judges notice that.
You can't fix the system. But you can stop it from breaking you.