An employment tribunal case, start to finish
A worked employment tribunal disclosure exercise: legal hold, mailbox and handset collection, WhatsApp threads, review and production, with a week by week timeline, indicative costs and the questions employment counsel ask.
A dismissed senior manager brings a whistleblowing and unfair dismissal claim. The allegations turn on what was said in a WhatsApp group and in a small set of Outlook threads over five months. Three custodians hold relevant material across mailboxes, Teams and personal handsets used for work.
This page sets out what happens at each stage, what it costs and the questions counsel ask before instructing. The figures are indicative and exclude VAT.
§ Timeline
What happens, and when
- Day 1 to 2
Legal hold and scope
Issue a written hold to the three custodians and to IT, suspend mailbox retention and auto-deletion in the tenant, and agree the date range and the issues the search must reach.
- Day 3 to 7
Collection
Tenant side export of the mailboxes and Teams chats, plus a forensic extraction of the two handsets carrying the WhatsApp group. Message threads, reactions, attachments and deleted-but-recoverable items are kept intact with a chain of custody record.
- Week 2
Processing and early view
De-duplicate, thread the messages by conversation and date, and run an early case assessment so both sides can see the true volume before search terms are agreed.
- Week 3 to 4
Review
Relevance and privilege review against the list of issues, with personal and third party data flagged for redaction where the tribunal does not need it.
- Week 5
Disclosure list and production
Produce the agreed bundle in the format the tribunal and the other side have accepted, with a load file or paginated PDF set and a short statement of the process followed.
- On request
Evidence at the hearing
A witness statement covering collection and authenticity, and if the messages are challenged, a short expert note on how the extraction was taken and what it shows.
§ Costs
What each stage costs
Indicative ranges for a matter of this shape, excluding VAT, court fees and your own review time. Every instruction gets a written stage by stage budget after the first call, and we do not move to the next stage without approval.
| Stage | Indicative fee | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Legal hold and scoping | £750 to £1,500 | Hold notices, custodian interviews and a written collection plan. |
| Mailbox and Teams collection | £1,200 to £3,000 | Tenant side export for three custodians with a chain of custody record. |
| Handset extraction | £650 to £1,200 per device | Forensic extraction, WhatsApp thread reconstruction and an exhibit set. |
| Processing and hosting | £1,000 to £2,500 | De-duplication, threading, early case assessment and three months of hosting. |
| Review support | £2,000 to £6,000 | Platform set up, search term testing, redaction workflow and quality control. |
| Production | £500 to £1,500 | Agreed format, load file or paginated bundle, and a process statement. |
§ FAQs
Questions counsel ask
- Can we collect WhatsApp from a personal phone used for work?
- Yes, with consent or a clear contractual right, and the collection should be scoped to the relevant threads and date range rather than the whole handset. We document what was taken and what was left, which is what the tribunal will ask about if the point is contested.
- Do tribunal cases really need eDisclosure software?
- Not always. Under a few thousand documents a structured review in a light platform is proportionate and often cheaper than manual handling. The value is in de-duplication, threading and a defensible record of what was searched.
- How do we handle the claimant's personal data in the messages?
- Personal and third party data that is not relevant is redacted before production, and the redaction log forms part of the disclosure record. That keeps the exercise defensible for both tribunal and data protection purposes.
- What does a typical tribunal disclosure exercise cost?
- A three custodian matter with two handsets usually lands between £6,000 and £14,000 excluding review time by your own team. We give a written stage by stage budget after the first call and do not move to the next stage without approval.
Employment and HR eDiscovery →Collection →Review →
§ From the Case Builder blog
- Scoping extended disclosure so it does not run away
A working method for Practice Direction 57AD: agree the issues, sample before you promise, and keep the search narrow enough to defend.
- Collecting mobile and chat evidence defensibly
Phones, Teams and WhatsApp carry the decisive messages. Here is how to collect them so the other side cannot attack the method.
- The first 72 hours of a departing team case
Trade secrets and team move matters are decided by what is preserved before anyone is confronted. A practical order of work.
Bring us in early.
Defensibility is built, not retrofitted.
Whether you are responding to a regulator, preparing for disclosure, or scoping an internal investigation, start the chain of custody with a short, confidential conversation.