What happens after a charge is filed

This page is legal information, not legal advice. It describes what the law says. It cannot tell you what to do about your own situation.

A charge starts an investigation, not a trial. Most charges never reach a hearing. Here is the order things happen in, and which of the clocks along the way are fixed by rule.

The steps

1. A charge is filed with the regional office covering the workplace. It must be filed within six months of what it is about. See the six month limit.
2. The region investigates. A Board agent takes evidence from the person who filed and gives the charged party a chance to answer. Most of the work of the agency happens here, and most charges end here.
3. The region decides whether the charge has merit. If it does not, the regional director dismisses it, or asks the charging party to withdraw it. If it does, and the parties do not settle, the region issues a complaint.
4. A dismissal can be appealed to the General Counsel in Washington, within 14 days of the notice of dismissal.
5. A complaint goes to a hearing before an administrative law judge. The party the complaint is against has 14 days to file an answer.
6. The judge issues a decision. Any party has 28 days to file exceptions with the Board in Washington.
7. The Board decides. Its order can be enforced, or challenged, in a United States court of appeals.

Settlement runs alongside all of this

A case can settle at any point, before a complaint, after a complaint, and even after a judge has ruled. The great majority of meritorious charges are settled rather than litigated, which is why a case closing does not tell you who was right.

How long it takes

The deadlines above are fixed by the Board's own rules and can be checked. How long the steps between them actually take is a different question, and it is one this site cannot answer yet. Real case durations come from the Board's own case data, which this site does not hold. Until it does, nothing here estimates a timeline. See where this comes from.

Where this comes from

• Appeal of a refusal to issue a complaint, 14 days: 29 C.F.R. § 102.19.
• Answer to a complaint, 14 days: 29 C.F.R. § 102.20.
• Exceptions to a judge's decision, 28 days: 29 C.F.R. § 102.46(a).
• The Board's own account of the process, on nlrb.gov.