Employment-related tribunal claims

The following are some plain English definitions of employment-related tribunal terms and jargon that you may come across:

• Case management discussion - a private meeting held before an employment judge to decide on matters such as the date, time, and length of the hearing.
• Claim - the written complaint against you, set out on an ET1(NI) form, sent by a claimant to the employment-related tribunal.
• Claimant - the individual - usually an employee or ex-employee making a claim to an employment-related tribunal.
• Early Conciliation - a workplace dispute resolution service provided by the Labour Relations Agency to employees, employers, and their representatives - claimants who wish to lodge a claim with the Industrial or Fair Employment Tribunal must first notify the Labour Relations Agency and discuss the option of Early Conciliation.
• Employment judge - a legally qualified person with knowledge of employment law and business experience who directs an employment-related tribunal hearing.
• Employment-related tribunal - the panel of people on an Industrial Tribunal or Fair Employment Tribunal who listen to the evidence and reach a decision during a hearing.
• ET1(NI) - the form the claimant fills in to make a claim.
• ET3(NI) - the form the respondent fills in to give their response to the claimant's claim.
• Hearing - the proceedings during which both parties present their evidence and defend their claim in front of the employment-related tribunal, after which it reaches its judgment.
• Office of the Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal (OITFET) - the organisation that administers employment-related tribunal claims.
• Judgment - the employment judge's or employment-related tribunal's decision on the outcome of the claim, ie, whether it succeeds or fails, or on a matter relating to the proceedings.
• Lay members - people with experience in employment relations, either from an employers' standpoint or from a trade union or employees' standpoint, who sit on an employment-related tribunal alongside an employment judge.
• Party - either the claimant (plus their representative if they have one) or respondent (plus their representative if they have one).
• Preliminary hearing - a meeting held in public before an employment judge to decide preliminary matters, and which may result in a claim or part of a claim being struck out without the need for a full hearing.
• Reasons - an explanation of why or how a particular judgment was arrived at.
• Representative - a person who acts on behalf of either the claimant or respondent during conciliation, case management discussions, pre-hearing reviews, and the employment-related tribunal hearing itself.
• Respondent - the party - usually an employer - against whom the claim is made against by the claimant.
• Response - the written reasons why the respondent will (or will not) be defending a claim.