10/05/2026
This ET1 Error Can Collapse Your Employment Tribunal Case – Part 2
ET1 is the Employment Tribunal claim form that defines your pleaded causes of action, including discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, harassment, victimisation, unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, and any claim based on a protected characteristic. If discrimination, harassment or victimisation are not expressly pleaded in ET1 using the correct legal labels, tribunals may treat those allegations as outside jurisdiction and refuse to determine them. Judges do not assume legal intention from narrative alone. The wording of ET1 frames what the tribunal is legally permitted to hear.
Most claimants believe the hearing decides their case. In reality, ET1 silently frames the entire claim before any judge reads the evidence. What you plead becomes the procedural identity of the case. What you fail to plead is often treated as legally absent. This video explains how ET1 operates as a legal filter, how tribunals read pleaded claims, why later “clarification” is often rejected, and how respondents exploit ET1 omissions to limit tribunal jurisdiction.
This is not legal advice. This is structural analysis of how Employment Tribunal claims are interpreted in practice.