The Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed in CMB v Hamm that delaying the presentation of a claim for unfair dismissal until an internal appeal procedure has been followed and completed will not justify a late claim outside the 3 month period.
The normal time limit for lodging an unfair dismissal claim is 3 months and this can only be avoided where the claimant can present evidence that compliance with the time limit was "not reasonably practicable" and that the claim has been submitted within a reasonable time of its becoming practicable to present the complaint. The courts have generally allowed late claims for unfair dismissal in very limited circumstances.
Examples of where it would not be reasonably practicable to bring a claim would be where the employee does not have all the information relating to his dismissal (Marley (UK) Ltd v Anderson 1996), or where the employee is prevented by serious illness (Schultz v Esso Petroleum Co Ltd 1999), although the EAT stresses that
