Extending time to bring an unfair dismissal claim 





Tribunals have a discretion to extend the time limit for submitting a claim for unfair dismissal if it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim in time (section 111(2), ERA 96). This test is strictly applied and extensions of time are rare. In general, ignorance of a time limit is not treated as a valid justification for extending time. (A slightly more flexible approach is taken to requests to extend time in claims under the Equality Act 2010 (EA 10) — see page 274.) 





In a claim for unfair dismissal, bad legal advice from a solicitor is never accepted as a good excuse for missing the claim deadline (Dedman v British Building and Engineering Appliances [1973] IRLR 379). This is the case even if the solicitor was not asked to advise on whether to bring a tribunal claim, or gave the advice in a free consultation (T Mobile (UK) Limited v Singleton [2011] UKEAT/0410/10). The tribunal’s view is that claimants should pursue a claim in negligence against their solicitor, who must hold insurance. Not even the fact that a solicitor’s files were seized by the regulator, the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority, was accepted as a good reason for missing the time limit in Sheredes School v Davies [2016] UKEAT/0196/16/JOJ.




In Opare-Addo v Wandsworth BC EAT/0740/01, the fact that a claimant was represented by her union was one reason why the tribunal thought she should have lodged her unfair dismissal claim in time. Her request for an extension was refused. An extension was allowed where a claimant sought advice from Citizens Advice who failed to tell her about the time limit (Marks & Spencer v Williams-Ryan [2005] IRLR 562), but in Remploy Limited v Brain [2011] UKEAT 0465/10/0203, the EAT suggested that “widespread public knowledge of unfair dismissal rights” means that ignorance of time limits is increasingly less likely to be regarded as reasonable. In DHL Supply Chain Ltd v Fazackerley [2018] UKEAT /0019/18, an extension was allowed when a claimant relied on wrong advice from the Acas Helpline. The deadline was missed because the Acas Helpline advisor mistakenly advised the claimant to wait until the internal appeal process had been exhausted. The correct position is that an ongoing or outstanding internal appeal is never accepted as an excuse for missing the deadline for an unfair dismissal claim. 



In Sterling v United Learning Trust [2015] UKEAT/0439/14/DM, a claimant was refused an extension of time when she missed the deadline because her original Form ET1 was rejected when she got two digits of her Acas EC Certificate number wrong.
Even very short delays that result from technological failure, power cuts or mistyping are not generally accepted as a good excuse. For example, in Beasley v National Grid Electricity Transmissions [2007] UKEAT/0626/06/DM, an extension was refused for a claimant whose claim was one minute 28 seconds late due to mistyping a digit.



In Wray v Jewish Care [2019] UKEAT0193/18/1704, the EAT considered applications to extend time for claims that were not pursued because of a claimant's inability to pay the tribunal fee (see page 475). The EAT said that in some cases, the requirement to pay an initial £250 fee may have made it "not reasonably practicable" to bring an unfair dismissal claim in time, but that each case will depend on its own facts. Mr Wray's case was dismissed because the tribunal concluded that he had access to some funds that he could have used to pay the fee and because he delayed too long (five weeks) between finding out about the effect of the Supreme Court judgment abolishing tribunal fees and issuing his claim. 


A claimant who realises they have missed a deadline must act urgently to issue their claim as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the tribunal is likely to refuse to extend time, irrespective of the reason for missing the original deadline. 





In practice, the claim deadline should be approached as if it is cast in stone. Only very rarely will it be extended and it is hard to predict when this will happen. Even if an extension is granted, the claimant starts off on the back foot, with the expense, stress and risks associated with extra tribunal hearings. It is vital that the Acas EC Notification Form — the first step in any claim — is submitted to Acas well inside the time limit, and that the ET1 Claim Form is completed and ready to be filed comfortably on time (see Chapter 14).