Deposit Order Bundle

A deposit order is the Employment Tribunal's "yellow card" — a formal warning that a specific allegation or argument in a claim or response has little reasonable prospect of success. Under Rule 40 of the Employment Tribunal Procedure Rules 2024, the tribunal can require the party advancing that argument to pay up to £1,000 as a condition of continuing to pursue it.

The threshold is deliberately lower than strike-out, which requires no reasonable prospect at all. A deposit order applies where the prospects are weak but not hopeless — where there's a realistic, if doubtful, possibility that the argument could succeed. Before fixing the amount, the tribunal must make reasonable enquiries into the depositor's ability to pay and have regard to that information when deciding the sum.

The costs consequences that attach to a deposit order if the paying party ultimately loses on that argument — and loses it for substantially the reasons given in the order — are often more significant than the deposit itself. The party is treated as having acted unreasonably in pursuing it, and the deposit is paid to the other side.