Commence proceedings against your employer
Conciliation did not settle it. Time to put the case in front of a tribunal.
When the Fair Work Commission conciliation does not resolve your unfair dismissal, general protections or redundancy claim, the matter moves to a formal hearing or to court. This is where the case stops being a negotiation and starts being a litigation. We prepare the file properly, brief evidence, run the hearing, and pursue the outcome that conciliation was never going to deliver. We do it commercially so the matter resolves with a result, not with years of accumulated legal costs.
What is involved in commencing proceedings against your employer?
When conciliation under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the Act) does not resolve a matter, the case progresses to a contested hearing before the Fair Work Commission, or in some cases to the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. The Stage 2 work is what makes or breaks the result: witness statements, document discovery, expert evidence on loss, written submissions, and the hearing itself. The Fair Work Commission can order reinstatement or compensation up to a six-month wages cap; the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia can award uncapped damages and penalties in general protections matters. Choosing the right forum is a strategic decision that affects what you can recover.
When does a matter move from conciliation to hearing?
A matter moves to a contested hearing if the parties cannot agree settlement terms at conciliation. The Fair Work Commission lists the matter for arbitration, sets a hearing date, and makes orders for witness statements and documents. Most contested hearings under the Act are decided within a few months of listing.
What is the difference between an unfair dismissal claim and a general protections claim?
An unfair dismissal claim under the Act tests whether the dismissal was harsh, unjust or unreasonable; remedies are reinstatement or compensation capped at six months’ wages. A general protections claim tests whether the dismissal was for a prohibited reason (such as exercising a workplace right or holding a protected attribute); damages are uncapped, civil penalties can apply, and the matter is heard in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia rather than the Fair Work Commission.
Will I have to give evidence in person?
Most witnesses give evidence in person at the hearing, including the applicant. Witness statements are prepared and exchanged before the hearing, and you will be cross-examined on what is in your statement. We prepare you for cross-examination and run the hearing alongside you.
How long does a contested matter take to resolve?
Unfair dismissal matters that go to hearing in the Fair Work Commission are usually decided within three to six months of the application being filed. Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia matters take longer, typically nine to eighteen months, depending on complexity and the court’s listing position.
Right forum chosen.
We brief the matter into the Fair Work Commission or Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia based on what you can recover.
Evidence prepared properly.
Witness statements, financial loss schedules, and documents go in tested and tight.
Hearing run end-to-end.
We run the hearing, including cross-examination of the employer's witnesses, and we run it commercially.
Conciliation did not work. The next step is decisive action.
Moving a matter into formal proceedings is a strategic decision and the evidence you put on at the start shapes everything that follows. Talk to us before you brief anyone else.
The employer would not settle. Now they have to defend.
Conciliation has ended without a result, and you are left choosing between walking away or running the matter to a hearing. The forum decision, the evidence to brief, the witnesses to call, and the realistic value of the matter all need to be worked out before the application progresses any further.
- We will advise on whether to continue, settle on better terms, or pivot to a general protections claim with higher damages.
- We will choose the right forum: Fair Work Commission, or Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.
- We will draft your witness statement and the supporting evidence the case needs.
- We will run the contested hearing, including examination and cross-examination of witnesses.
- We will pursue costs, penalties, and uncapped damages where the law and the facts allow.
The conciliation has finished and the employer is not budging.
You filed the unfair dismissal or general protections application, the conciliation happened, and the employer either refused to engage seriously or offered an amount that does not reflect what the matter is actually worth. The Fair Work Commission has now made directions for witness statements and a hearing date. The decision is whether to escalate, walk, or shift strategy, and you need someone who runs these hearings for a living to weigh in.
What's included in your Stage 2 proceedings service
- Strategic review of the file and remedies actually available.
- Forum advice (Fair Work Commission vs Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia).
- Witness statement drafting for you and supporting witnesses.
- Document discovery and subpoenas where required.
- Loss-of-earnings schedule and quantum advice.
- Hearing representation including cross-examination of employer witnesses.
- Post-hearing submissions and pursuit of costs and penalties where available.
What happens when proceedings are run unprepared.
Self-represented applicants lose hearings that the evidence should have won. Witness statements drift into argument instead of fact, financial loss schedules ignore mitigation and credit, and the cross-examination of the employer’s witnesses gets nowhere because the questions were never structured around the legal test the tribunal applies. The hearing is the one chance the matter gets, and the tribunal can only decide on what is in front of it. An applicant who arrives without the file properly prepared loses a matter that the same facts, with proper representation, would have settled or won.
Here is how we run the hearing and pursue the result.
We pick up the file, work through what the conciliation produced and what the employer is actually defending, and decide whether to push the matter to a hearing in the Fair Work Commission or to pivot to a general protections claim in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia where damages and penalties are larger. We draft a witness statement that addresses every element of the test, brief the documents and any expert evidence, and prepare you for cross-examination so the day itself is not a surprise. By the time the hearing runs, the matter is in the right forum, the evidence is sequenced, and the cross-examination of the employer’s witnesses is structured around the points the tribunal will weigh. The case is run properly, and the result reflects that.
Three steps to running the matter through to a result.
Strategy reset, evidence in, hearing run.
1
Strategy reset.
We review the file, the conciliation outcome, and the realistic remedies, then advise on whether to proceed, pivot or settle.
2
Evidence in.
We draft your witness statement, brief documents and any expert reports, and file written submissions.
3
Hearing run.
We represent you at the contested hearing and pursue costs, penalties, and damages where the law allows.
Employment lawyers who run contested hearings for dismissed employees, in the right forum.
Walking into a contested hearing without proper representation is one of the most expensive false economies in employment law. We have run hearings in the Fair Work Commission and the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia across unfair dismissal, general protections and redundancy matters, and we have seen self-represented applicants lose cases that the evidence should have won. Our team prepares the case from the legal test backwards, calibrates the settlement position throughout the proceedings, and runs the hearing with the discipline a tribunal expects. The matter ends with a result that reflects what actually happened to you.
We understand you want to know the cost, before we get started...
We will map out our process, from beginning to end, so you know what the journey will look like before you get started.
We will provide you with a clear and detailed Work Proposal covering each step along the way.
Our fair fees are all-inclusive. No hidden costs for telephone calls, emails, photocopying, couriers, or coffee.
Take the matter to the right forum and run it properly.
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