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Which employment tribunal claim types are most likely to succeed?

A data-backed look at claimant success rates by claim type in published employment tribunal judgments, with sample-size caveats and compensation context.

Claim types analysed

25

claim types have at least 10 tagged published cases in the current dataset view

Largest sample

Unfair Dismissal

8,244 tagged cases, with a 38.9% claimant success rate

Highest success rate

86.9%

Protective Award leads among claim types with 10+ cases

Highest median award

£12,495

Discrimination Disability has the highest median recorded compensation among claim types with at least 5 compensated successful cases (104 compensated cases)

What the data says

In this analysis, Tribunal Intel is drawing on 35,145 claim-type tags from published employment tribunal judgments. To avoid drawing conclusions from tiny samples, this insight only ranks claim types with at least 10 tagged published cases. That leaves 35,145 tagged case appearances across 25 claim types.

On that filtered view, Protective Award has the highest claimant success rate at 86.9% across 183 tagged cases. That does not make it an “easy” claim; it means that, among published judgments currently indexed here, claimant-successful or partially-successful outcomes are more common in that tagged set.

The largest claim-type sample is Unfair Dismissal with 8,244 tagged cases. Its scale makes it useful for directional reading, but it also means the category mixes many factual situations, procedural histories, and remedies stages.

The practical takeaway is to read success rate, sample size, and compensation together. A small category with a high success rate may be less useful for planning than a larger category with a lower but more stable rate. A high average award can also be driven by a few exceptional cases rather than the ordinary value of that claim type. Median compensation is usually more stable, but it is still not reliable when only a handful of successful cases include recorded awards.

Claim types with the highest claimant success rates

Protective Award

183 tagged cases · 159 claimant or partial wins

86.9%

median £3,402 · avg £7,510 · compensated cases 38

Working Time

110 tagged cases · 82 claimant or partial wins

74.5%

median £1,671 · avg £3,694 · compensated cases 51

Unlawful Deduction

5,203 tagged cases · 3,864 claimant or partial wins

74.3%

median £1,897 · avg £4,930 · compensated cases 2,979

Redundancy Pay

1,308 tagged cases · 953 claimant or partial wins

72.9%

median £4,178 · avg £6,747 · compensated cases 665

Reasonable Adjustments

25 tagged cases · 17 claimant or partial wins

68.0%

median £6,032 · avg £6,032 · compensated cases 2

Breach Of Contract

5,582 tagged cases · 3,479 claimant or partial wins

62.3%

median £2,851 · avg £9,750 · compensated cases 2,138

Tupe

68 tagged cases · 40 claimant or partial wins

58.8%

median £6,402 · avg £12,301 · compensated cases 11

Discrimination Pregnancy

245 tagged cases · 133 claimant or partial wins

54.3%

median £11,159 · avg £14,532 · compensated cases 42

Harassment

969 tagged cases · 412 claimant or partial wins

42.5%

median £4,507 · avg £9,755 · compensated cases 49

Constructive Dismissal

1,382 tagged cases · 559 claimant or partial wins

40.4%

median £6,000 · avg £15,002 · compensated cases 119

Unfair Dismissal

8,244 tagged cases · 3,207 claimant or partial wins

38.9%

median £4,568 · avg £14,590 · compensated cases 915

Victimisation

1,020 tagged cases · 369 claimant or partial wins

36.2%

median £10,402 · avg £127,206 · compensated cases 31

How to use this insight

Start with sample size

A larger sample usually gives a more stable signal. Treat small categories as prompts for reading cases, not as a headline probability.

Compare claim mix

Many judgments involve multiple claim types. Use the claim label to find comparable cases, then inspect what actually drove the outcome.

Look beyond winning

A claim type can show a solid success rate but low average compensation, or a lower rate with occasional large awards. Both are commercially relevant.

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