Time limits
5 min read · Reviewed 21 June 2026
Time limits are the single thing self-represented claimants get wrong most often. Miss the deadline and a strong claim can be lost before anyone looks at the merits. This guide explains how the clock works — and how to stop it.
The basic rule
For most Employment Tribunal discrimination claims you must start early conciliation, and then present your claim, within three months of the act you are complaining about. The deadline is usually described as 'three months less one day' — if the act happened on 15 March, the last day is 14 June.
In plain terms
Count three months forward from the date of the act, then take off one day. That date is your deadline — unless ACAS Early Conciliation pauses the clock (below).
ACAS Early Conciliation stops the clock
Before you can issue a tribunal claim you must notify ACAS and go through Early Conciliation. The period between the day you contact ACAS and the day they issue the certificate does not count toward your three months — the clock is paused. You then get the certificate, and there is a minimum window to present the claim after it. The practical effect is that early conciliation usually buys you time, but only if you start it before the original deadline.
A 'continuing act' can move the start date
Where discrimination is an ongoing state of affairs rather than a single event, time can run from the end of that continuing act, not the first incident. This is fact-sensitive: linked acts by the same people, part of a connected course of conduct, may be treated as one act extending over a period.
If you are already late: the 'just and equitable' extension
A tribunal has a discretion to extend time where it is just and equitable to do so. It is a genuine discretion, not a presumption — you have to persuade the tribunal. Relevant factors include the length of and reason for the delay, whether the delay has prejudiced a fair hearing, and how promptly you acted once you knew you could claim.
Do not rely on an extension as a plan. Treat the three-month deadline as hard, and the extension as a safety net you hope never to need.
Where this comes from
- Equality Act 2010, s.123 — time limits; just-and-equitable extension; continuing act
- British Coal Corporation v Keeble [1997] IRLR 336 (EAT) — factors relevant to a just-and-equitable extension
- Adedeji v University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust [2021] EWCA Civ 23 — the real question is whether it is just and equitable; Keeble factors are a guide, not a checklist
Your next step
Work out your own deadline with the time-limit estimator (free, in your workspace).
Time-limit estimator is a tool in your private workspace — log in to use it on your own situation.