in layman's language
to facilitate "out of court" settlement of employment claims, new rules were introduced in 2004 which provide an automatic 3 month extension of the normal time limit for lodging an unfair dismissal claim provided specified conditions are met. To benefit from this automatic extension, the claimant has to show that at the end of the normal (also 3 month) period for lodging a claim he had reasonable grounds for believing "that a dismissal or disciplinary procedure" was being followed. This case shows that for an employee to show he had this belief it is not enough that shortly after his dismissal his solicitor wrote to the employer suggesting a cash settlement of potential claims and that a final (dismissive) reply to that letter was not received until after the normal 3 month period had expired

in technical language
a solicitor’s letter before action attempting to negotiate a cash settlement of a potential unfair dismissal claim does not of itself constitute the lodging of an appeal against a dismissal decision for the purposes of the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedure contained in the Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004 SI 2004/752. The result is that it is not sufficient on its own to support a contention that his employee client had reasonable grounds for believing, when the normal limitation period expired, that a dismissal or disciplinary procedure was still being followed in respect of matters that included the substance of his tribunal claim and so does not result in there being an automatic extension of time under reg 15(2) of those regulations for lodging the claim.

For relevant general notes see Dispute Resolution/time-limits .