Lurking on the horizon of every employment dispute is the black cloud of an employment tribunal, an event which from personal experience, I can assure you is about as enjoyable as a difficult tooth extraction.

Formerly known as industrial tribunals, employment tribunals are something that most people are aware of, but happily very few ever get involved in.

Unfortunately, by the time that someone finds themselves seeking the ruling of an employment tribunal, their ability for rational thought has usually been replaced by a primevial desire for revenge.

Nevertheless, it's important to remember that the road to a tribunal is long, stressful and potentially expensive and certainly not something to be undertaken without a lot of careful thought.

While theoretically, a tribunal claim can be pursued without legal representation, that course of action could be akin to playing Russian roulette with a fully-loaded revolver. At the end of the day, an employment tribunal is a court of law, albeit without the wigs and gowns, but as such, is a potential legal minefield. Legal aid isn't generally available to cover such cases, so unless the claimant is a member of a union, or has appropriate legal expenses insurance, they are pretty much on their own when it comes to paying their legal fees and often require infinitely deep pockets.

Employment law is complicated, so the choice of a suitable solicitor warrants careful consideration.While the family solicitor may be a more than competent legal practitioner, in all but the most straight forward cases an employment tribunal requires the services of a specialist in employment law.

And like all specialists, solicitors who are fully conversant with the vagaries of this type of litigation, don't come cheap.

I opted for the services of the local firm of March & Edwards during my recent experience of the employment tribunal system and was very glad that I did. Without the patient and understanding advice that I received from one of their partners, Guy Salter, I would not only have been swamped by the pre-hearing litigation, but would have been totally destroyed by the first legal broadside from the opposing party's advocate during the actual hearing itself.

To take an average case all the way through to completion will cost somewhere between £3,000 and £15,000, depending on its complexity and it should be remembered that costs are rarely awarded to the winning party in any but the most extreme situations.

So, the financial equation for a successful claimant paying his own costs, reads: Award- Costs = What you actually get!

Still interested? Well, now consider the time and personal stress involved, plus the fact that apparently only about 14 per cent of claims submitted to tribunals actually run the full course to a successful conclusion.

The employment tribunal system is currently overloaded with work, dealing with some 130,000 claims each year and it's a situation that doesn't look like changing in the near future. After the legal ball is set rolling by the submission of a form ET1 to the local employment tribunal office it can take several months before the hearing takes place, however, during this period, the services of ACAS are available to both parties.

Assuming that no amicable settlement is subsequently reached, the next step is the tribunal itself.

This will usually be held at the nearest regional tribunal office and for anyone working in Worcester, this is at Newhall Street, Birmingham.

The claim will be heard by a panel of three people, a chairperson who will be a qualified lawyer plus two lay persons and it is they who will decide the outcome of the case. Hearings are normally held in public and bearing in mind that they can be very stressful affairs, it can be a good idea for anyone considering this course of action to sit in on one, just to get an idea of what's involved. While the chairperson will normally control unreasonably aggressive cross-examination, it can still be a harrowing experience and come as quite a shock to anyone that's never experienced it before.

Evidence is given under oath or affirmation which is as binding as in a court of law and it's essential that it's given accurately and without unnecessary embellishment. The same applies when being cross-examined. While it may be difficult, all temptations to react angrily must be avoided and answers directed at the panel in a controlled and unemotional way.

After both parties have given their evidence and been cross-examined, the tribunal panel will adjourn to consider their decision.

Depending on the time allocated to the hearing, this may be given the same day, or deferred and issued in writing later. Whichever option occurs, the decision of an employment tribunal is as binding as that of any court of law and unless either party decides to appeal the decision, any compensatory payments awarded, will have to be paid within the time period laid down by the tribunal.

So there we have it, employment tribunals in a nutshell. But bearing in mind the stress, time involved and possible financial commitment, two very important questions have to be asked. Is it all worth it? and Who stands to gain the most?

While the answer to the first question has to be a personal decision, the solution to the second is pretty clear cut. In third place we have the claimant who, through shear doggedness and determination, is prepared to pay their own legal costs in an attempt to find the catharsis of a moral victory. Secondly, comes someone who is lucky enough to have legal insurance, is a member of a trade union that will represent them at the tribunal, or is being represented on a contingency fee basis. But ahead of both these two comes the legal profession, because at the end of the day they still get paid!