It has now been a year since the introduction of the Compulsory ACAS Early Conciliation process.
During that period 83,000 cases have been through Conciliation with 3 out of 4 Employers and Employees agreeing to takpart.
Of course agreeing to take part does not mean that there will be a successful outcome for the Claimant or indeed that in an unsuccessful conciliation that the Claimant will pursue to Tribunal.
In fact the statistics indicate that 63% did not proceed to a claim, 15% resulted in formal COT3 Settlement Agreements, only 22% progressed to a claim and of those more than half settled by way of ACAS COT3 at a later date.
This still illustrates the impact of fees on tribunals. Employers may still consider that they are better off not settling at the early stage until they have seen whether the Employee is prepared to stump up the initial fee.