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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

9,018 tagged cases, with a 40.3% claimant success rate

Highest success rate

91.8%

Protective Award leads among claim types with 10+ cases

Highest median award

£13,423

Discrimination Disability has the highest median recorded compensation among claim types with at least 5 compensated successful cases (115 compensated cases)

What the data says

In this analysis, Tribunal Intel is drawing on 37,705 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 37,705 tagged case appearances across 25 claim types.

On that filtered view, Protective Award has the highest claimant success rate at 91.8% across 182 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 9,018 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

182 cases · 167 claimant-successful / partially successful cases

91.8%

median £3,402 · avg £7,510 · 38 of those have compensation

Working Time

147 cases · 113 claimant-successful / partially successful cases

76.9%

median £1,799 · avg £3,829 · 67 of those have compensation

Unlawful Deduction

5,688 cases · 4,314 claimant-successful / partially successful cases

75.8%

median £1,875 · avg £4,944 · 3,270 of those have compensation

Redundancy Pay

1,425 cases · 1,073 claimant-successful / partially successful cases

75.3%

median £4,134 · avg £6,738 · 707 of those have compensation

Reasonable Adjustments

25 cases · 16 claimant-successful / partially successful cases

64.0%

median £6,032 · avg £6,032 · 2 of those have compensation

Breach Of Contract

6,054 cases · 3,857 claimant-successful / partially successful cases

63.7%

median £2,800 · avg £9,500 · 2,291 of those have compensation

Tupe

79 cases · 50 claimant-successful / partially successful cases

63.3%

median £6,014 · avg £10,138 · 16 of those have compensation

Discrimination Pregnancy

262 cases · 145 claimant-successful / partially successful cases

55.3%

median £10,573 · avg £14,134 · 46 of those have compensation

Harassment

1,051 cases · 464 claimant-successful / partially successful cases

44.1%

median £5,239 · avg £11,333 · 58 of those have compensation

Constructive Dismissal

1,453 cases · 606 claimant-successful / partially successful cases

41.7%

median £6,364 · avg £14,676 · 127 of those have compensation

Unfair Dismissal

9,018 cases · 3,637 claimant-successful / partially successful cases

40.3%

median £4,810 · avg £15,458 · 993 of those have compensation

Victimisation

1,100 cases · 412 claimant-successful / partially successful cases

37.5%

median £10,402 · avg £121,372 · 33 of those have compensation

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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