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Tribunal Claim Readiness Check
The gate between a finished internal process and an ET1: the time limit that applies to you, whether ACAS has been notified, whether you have the service the claim needs, and whether the papers are in hand.
Two changes in four months create exactly the confusion that loses claims. Since 1 October 2026 most claims carry six months less one day where the relevant date falls on or after that day, and three months less one day where it falls before. From 1 January 2027 ordinary unfair dismissal needs six months of service rather than two years.
An internal appeal does not pause the tribunal clock. Notifying ACAS does.
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The six checks
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- The date the clock runs from, and which regime applies: six months less one day where the relevant date falls on or after 1 October 2026, three months less one day before it.
- ACAS Early Conciliation: the days between notifying ACAS and receiving the certificate are not counted, and where the limit would then fall within a month of the certificate it moves to one month after it. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 207B(3) and (4).
- Qualifying service for ordinary unfair dismissal: two years where the effective date of termination is before 1 January 2027, six months where it is on or after. Discrimination, automatically unfair dismissal, whistleblowing detriment, notice pay and unpaid wages need none.
- The claims in view, each pleaded separately on the ET1.
- The documents in hand: contract, payslips, P45, the dismissal and appeal letters, the policy, a chronology, a schedule of loss, a job search record and the ACAS certificate.
- Whether an internal appeal is still running, which does not pause the tribunal clock.
Read alongside: What changes in October 2026 and What changes in January 2027.
Primary sources. Employment Rights Act 1996, sections 108, 111, 123(4) and 207B; Employment Rights Act 2025, section 152 and Schedule 12, in force 1 October 2026 under SI 2026/954; SI 2026/559 on the six-month qualifying period from 1 January 2027; Employment Tribunals Act 1996, section 18A. Every reference to the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures is to the version dated 11 March 2015, which is in force. The revised Code published in draft on 30 July 2026 is not in force and is not used.
What this is. General information about the standard the law and the Code set, for England and Wales. It is not an assessment of your case and it does not predict any outcome. Dates shown are indicative: confirm any deadline before you rely on it.
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