Guide · Use this now
Disciplinary hearing preparation checklist
Everything worth doing before you walk in, in the order to do it. Free, complete on this page, and built to be printed and written on. There is nothing to sign up to and we do not ask for your email.
Work down this list from wherever you are. If your hearing is in two days and you have done none of it, start at section one anyway: requests made late still count, and a refusal recorded late is still a refusal recorded.
One principle runs through all of it. Put requests in writing, keep them short, and date them. An employer who answers has given you what you asked for. An employer who does not has created a record of not answering, and at a hearing those are almost equally useful.
Step one
As soon as you are notified
- Read the invitation letter twice. It defines the case you have to answer, and the case your employer is then confined to. Note the allegations as written, the policy relied on, the date, the time and the venue.
- Check it tells you that you can be accompanied. It should. If it does not, that omission is worth recording.
- Diarise the date, then count backwards. Decide today whether the notice you have been given is genuinely reasonable time to prepare against the volume of evidence.
- Start a dated log. One document, every conversation, every email, every meeting, with dates and who was present. Begin it now rather than reconstructing it later.
- Forward what you can lawfully access to a personal address. Your contract, the relevant policies, payslips, and correspondence about this matter. Access is often withdrawn without notice.
Step two
What to request, in one short email
Send one message, not six. One creates one clean record; six create an argument about what was asked and when.
| Ask for | Why |
|---|---|
| The allegations in specific terms | What you are said to have done, when, and which provision of the policy it engages. A vague allegation cannot fairly be upheld. |
| All the evidence relied on | Including witness statements. It would normally be appropriate for these to come with the invitation. |
| The policy and procedure | The current version. Sanction is anchored to it, and so is the question of whether the conduct is properly categorised. |
| Who is chairing and who investigated | In misconduct cases these should be different people where practicable. |
| More time, if you need it | State the reason: the volume of evidence against the notice given. Ask before the hearing, not after. |
| Anything that helps you | CCTV, access logs, rotas, messages. Employers gather what supports the allegation. Material that undermines it usually has to be asked for, and systems overwrite. |
Step three
Arrange who is coming with you
- Decide early and name them. A fellow worker, a trade union representative, or an official employed by a trade union. Tell your employer the name in advance where you can.
- You do not need to be in a union. The right applies regardless of membership and there is no qualifying period.
- If your companion cannot make the date, propose an alternative within five working days of the original. Inside that window your employer must postpone.
- Brief them properly. They can put your case, sum it up, respond on your behalf and confer with you. They cannot answer questions put directly to you.
Step four
Building what you will actually say
- Take each allegation separately. For each one write: what is alleged, what actually happened, and what evidence supports your account. One paragraph each, no adjectives.
- Decide what you accept. A calculated admission paired with real mitigation is often stronger than a denial the evidence will not support. Decide this before the room, not in it.
- Test the category. If the letter says gross misconduct, ask whether the conduct genuinely belongs there or one category down. That single question changes the range of available sanctions.
- Gather your comparators. Has comparable conduct been treated differently? Consistency is one of the hardest arguments for an employer to answer.
- Write down your mitigation. Length of service, clean record, training, workload, staffing, health, provocation, and the practical consequences of dismissal. It rarely changes a finding. It frequently changes the sanction.
- Prepare your three hardest questions. Work out what you would ask if you were them, and answer those properly in advance.
Step five
On the day, and immediately after
- Take the papers, this list, and a pen. Being organised in the room is worth more than being fluent.
- Ask for an adjournment when you need one. You are entitled to confer with your companion. A short break beats an answer given under pressure.
- Raise procedural points as they happen. On the record, in the room. A letter afterwards carries far less weight.
- Have your companion take a full note. Write up your own account the same day, while it is fresh.
- Ask when you will be told the outcome, and ask for it in writing with reasons.
- When the outcome arrives, diarise two deadlines. The internal appeal deadline from the policy, and separately the tribunal time limit. An internal appeal does not pause the tribunal clock. Notifying ACAS does.
Sources: ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, in force 11 March 2015, paragraphs 4 to 29. Employment Relations Act 1999, section 10.
Common questions
Questions about using this checklist
No. It is on the page in full, it prints cleanly, and there is nothing to sign up to. We take the view that someone with a hearing on Friday should not have to trade their contact details for help.
The moment you receive the invitation letter. The single most common problem we see is preparation starting two days out, by which point requests for evidence and for more time have lost most of their force.
Very few are lost permanently. Requests for evidence, for particulars of the allegation and for more time can all still be made late, and a refusal recorded late is still a refusal recorded. Work down the list from where you are.
Most of it, yes. The accompaniment, evidence and note-taking sections apply either way. The allegation-specific sections are written for disciplinary matters, and the grievance guide covers the differences.
Yes. Print it, write on it, and keep it in front of you. Nobody will think less of you for being organised, and the section on questions to ask is far easier to use on paper than from memory.
Keep reading
Related guides
Investigation and suspension
What an investigation is for, what it is not, and why being suspended is not a finding against you. Includes what to ask for in writing on day one.
Read the guide → The hearingDisciplinary hearings
What actually happens in the room, what your employer has to do first, and how to prepare in the days you have rather than the days you want.
Read the guide → The allegationGross misconduct allegations
What makes conduct gross rather than serious, why summary dismissal still requires a fair process, and where these cases are most often won.
Read the guide →Confidential · Free 15-minute consultation
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