A widow who is taking her late husband's firm to an industrial tribunal will have to sell her family home to pay for the case as she faces a four-year wait for her day in court.

Catriona Ball's husband Lewis, 43, passed away in November 2024, within weeks of quitting his job as a manager at a medical technology company. 

Lewis, who died of coronary artery disease and hypertension, left his role after claiming he was under intolerable stress that was not being taken seriously.

In February last year, Ms Ball filed an employment tribunal claim on behalf of Lewis against his own employer - Inspiration Healthcare.

She claims he faced constructive dismissal and disability discrimination in the months before he resigned.

Ms Ball, who cannot settle his estate until her case is heard, now faces years of 'unbearable waiting' after being told that her claim cannot be decided until January 2029. 

This comes as the backlog at employment tribunals reaches a record high, meaning Ms Ball is stuck in a queue with tens of thousands of other cases.

The widow said she felt she had no choice but to begin the tribunal claim, and says she saw her husband's employers of more than 16 years 'driving him to quit his job' and then doing nothing to help after he died.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Ms Ball explained how the long wait for the tribunal has meant she might have to sell her family home due to high cost of legal fees and because she cannot access Lewis's assets until after the case is resolved.

'I'm raising two children on a single income, so there's that financial aspect that I have the same house, same bills, same outgoings,' she said. 

'But I can't access Lewis's assets until 2029 so now have this financial pressure as well as having to pay for the solicitors.'

Away from the burden of the case on the family's finances, Ms Ball said the 'lengthy wait' had been 'very distressing to navigate alongside my grief and other responsibilities as a mother of young children'.

The 37-year-old continued: 'I'm navigating grief as well, you're desperately wanting the grief to lessen quickly so you look forward to dates, and you focus on what will be happening, and then that's where your focus becomes on the dates that you feel will make you feel better.  So then to get a date of 2029 is just horrific.' 

Ms Ball said that the 'unbearable' wait time has made the family's loss more painful and that they needed closure to move forward.  

'Being left in limbo for such a long time is unacceptable,' she said.

To help Ms Ball and other claimants be heard more quickly -  experts have called for a radical overhaul of the employment tribunal system, including more cases settled through compulsory mediation, AI tools being deployed to streamline cases, and fast-track tribunals to deal with low-level claims for damages.

They have also warned that the rollout of enhanced workers rights from the Government's Employment Rights Act 2025 will lead to a spike in tribunal claims, leaving aggrieved workers in a 'no-man's land of delay'. 

New research from the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA) has shown that the backlog of tribunal cases waiting to be heard has almost doubled in the last four years.

Cambridge academics working with the ELA have drawn up a blueprint for tackling the delays.

The ELA, which represents more than 7,000 lawyers, says businesses and workers are equally trapped in the 'gummed up' tribunal system, waiting years for a final ruling.

And in some cases people have died or simply walked away before justice was done.

Sarah Fraser Butlin, a barrister and Cambridge fellow, said the employment tribunal system was originally set up to help people reach a 'quick, effective resolution' after a dispute, but it no longer delivers on that promise.

'Cases are now being listed in some areas for 2030,' she said.

'This is not access to justice. Radical reform of employment tribunals is needed urgently.'

She and Professor Catherine Barnard, a fellow Cambridge academic, are warning that the Government's flagship legislation to enhance workers' rights will become 'an empty vessel' without tribunal reform.

Their work identifies that tribunals currently have to hear evidence on every issue raised in a claim, no matter the merits, while people mounting their own claims without a lawyer are increasingly turning to AI, producing what the ELA terms 'voluminous amounts of irrelevant material'.

The reform proposals include establishing a new resolution service to try to prevent disputes turning unnecessarily into fully-fledged tribunal cases, compulsory mediation for all claims, and dividing the tribunals into three 'tracks'.

They have suggested that claims valued at less than £20,000 should be allowed  to be decided by a legal officer instead of a judge.

Hearings of claims for up to two years' earnings would be limited to five days, with strict restrictions on the amount of written evidence, and with financial penalties for anyone who pushes a case to a full hearing when it should have been settled earlier.

High-value and complex claims would go to a tribunal mirrored on the operation of the High Court, with rules governing witness statements and evidence, and concluding with a written ruling from a judge.

Ms Ball has voiced her support for the proposed reforms which she described as a 'common sense approach'. 

She said: 'The employment tribunals are there to protect employer rights and give them, and give employees the forum to talk through their grievances and get accountability.

'I know my case is different but I do wonder about rogue employers if they're not going to have to be accountable for four years. What's going to make them stop?

'They might almost think they can get away with their behaviour.' 

ELA chairman Caspar Glyn KC said the plan does not rely on a major injection of funds from the Government.

He said: 'ELA's plan works by giving information to workers and employers so that they can be realistic about their cases, by encouraging meaningful settlement meetings, by giving powers to employment judges so that they can manage cases justly, and by giving choices to workers, the system will mean that everyone will get access to justice more quickly and effectively.'

The Daily Mail has approached Inspiration Healthcare for a comment.