We’ll fight your corner

Every day we advise employees and senior executives on a wide range of employment law issues.  We appreciate that problems at work can cause a great deal of stress.  Whether you need legal advice on a proposed settlement agreement, feel that you have been treated unfairly by your employer and are considering bringing a claim, or need help with one of the other issues below, we can help you.

• Settlement agreements

• Unfair dismissal

• Constructive dismissal

• Wrongful dismissal

• Other claims

• Grievances

• Employment contracts

• Bullying & stress at work

• Holiday pay issues

Employment Tribunal claims

If you are considering bringing an employment-related claim, do not delay in contacting us as claims must be brought within strict time limits. You can rely on us to provide clear advice from the start on your prospects of success, the likely compensation if the claim were to succeed, the likely costs and risks if you proceed and any tactical considerations.  Where settlement is a possibility, we will use our experience to negotiate the best possible terms.  A large number of the cases we handle are resolved to our clients’ satisfaction without the need for an Employment Tribunal hearing.

Where litigation is necessary, we have the expertise to conduct Employment Tribunal advocacy ourselves. We will fight your corner robustly and effectively and have a high success rate. We always seek to keep our costs proportionate to the potential financial compensation available. Our experience representing both employers and employees positions us to provide the best strategic advice to our employee clients — because we can better anticipate the employer’s next moves.

We are highly skilled in bringing and managing Employment Tribunal claims and have a high success rate. Your claim will be handled by James Moss.

Fees

We advise on a wide range of employment issues, including unfair and wrongful dismissal claims in the Employment Tribunal. The fee information below is that required by the SRA Transparency Rules in relation to unfair and wrongful dismissal claims in the Employment Tribunal only:

Simple case: £5,000-£8,000 plus VAT (VAT is currently 20%)

Medium complexity case: £8,000-£12,000 plus VAT

High complexity case: £12,000-£15,000 plus VAT

Factors that could make a case more complex:

• if it is necessary to make applications to amend a claim or provide further information about an existing claim;

• where the respondent (the employer) and/or its solicitor/other representative is acting vexatiously, abusively, disruptively or otherwise unreasonably in the conducting of the proceedings, or a part of them;

• bringing claims against more than one potential employer;

• making or defending a costs or other application;

• complex preliminary issues such as whether you are disabled (if this is not agreed by the parties), who is the correct employer or whether the claim was submitted in time;

• high volume of documents (hearing bundle exceeds 175 pages);

• more than 4 witnesses in total;

• if it is an automatic unfair dismissal claim (e.g. dismissal due to whistleblowing or asserting a health and safety breach);

• allegations of discrimination;

• the unfair dismissal claim has wider financial impact e.g. where it determines good leaver/bad leaver status for your shareholding, bonus or other incentive;

• there are related High Court proceedings.

Our fees may increase or decrease as your case progresses. For example, if there are unforeseen complexities which mean we need to do additional work, our fees are likely to increase. We’ll discuss any fee increase with you in advance, providing you with a revised fee estimate.

Generally, we would allow 1-2 days at an Employment Tribunal for a simple case; 2-4 days for a medium complexity case and 5 days or more for a complex case.

Disbursements

Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties and are not part of our fees above. Typical disbursements that might be incurred in Employment Tribunal proceedings are as follows:

• costs for copying and preparing hearing bundles;

• barrister’s fees, unless we undertake the advocacy at the hearing ourselves (this will be assessed on a case by case basis taking into consideration the length of any hearing and whether it is more cost-effective to represent you ourselves at any such hearing). Barrister’s fees range between £750-£4,000 plus VAT per day (depending on the experience of the advocate) for attending a Tribunal Hearing (including preparation), although these could be significantly higher if, for example, you need a top-ranked barrister (known as King’s Counsel or ‘KC’).

• travel to and from the Employment Tribunal;

• accommodation whilst representing you at an Employment Tribunal hearing;

• access to medical records;

• instructing a pensions actuary for complex pension loss claims

• court fees

Unless we agree an alternative fee arrangement (such as no win, no fee – see below under ‘Funding options’), our fees will be payable regardless of the outcome of the claim. The usual costs rule in the Employment Tribunal is that each party bears its own costs so unless the Employment Tribunal determines that the respondent had acted vexatiously, abusively, disruptively or otherwise unreasonably, even if you are successful, it is unlikely that the Employment Tribunal would order your former employer to make a contribution to your costs.

Key stages

The fees set out above cover all of the work in relation to the following key stages of an unfair or wrongful dismissal claim:

• taking your initial instructions, reviewing the papers and advising you on merits and likely compensation (this is likely to be revisited throughout the matter and can be subject to change if new facts come to light);

• entering into ‘pre-claim conciliation’ via ACAS where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached;

• preparing and submitting your claim;

• reviewing and advising on the response and any counter-claim from the other party;

• exploring settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process;

• preparing a schedule of loss or considering any counter-schedule of loss;

• preparing for and attending a preliminary hearing;

• exchanging documents with the other party and agreeing a bundle of documents;

• reviewing the other party’s documents and confirming whether they change our assessment of the claim and / or its value;

• taking witness statements, drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses;

• liaising with the respondent’s solicitors to prepare the bundle of documents for the hearing;

• reviewing and advising on the other party’s witness statements;

• agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list; and

• preparation for the final hearing, including instructions to counsel.

The stages set out above are an indication of the typical stages involved in a claim for unfair or wrongful dismissal. If some of the stages above are not required, the fee may be lower. You may wish to handle the claim yourself and only have our advice in relation to some of the stages. This can be arranged according to your requirements.

We are able to offer a range of funding options. Our hourly rates are highly competitive and significantly lower than those charged at larger commercial law firms. Where possible, we also offer a range of fixed fee services for employment advice. If you, or anybody in your family, has legal expenses insurance, this may cover some or all of our fees – many of our clients fund their claims in this way. Usually the insurer will want advice on the merits of the claim before confirming cover. If you do not have legal expenses insurance and we consider that your case has good prospects of success, we may offer to take your case on a no win, no fee basis. We can discuss the full range of funding options when we take your initial instructions.

How long will my matter take?

The time that it takes from taking your initial instructions to the final resolution of your matter depends largely on the stage at which your case is resolved. On average, in a typical claim for unfair or wrongful dismissal in the Employment Tribunal, if a settlement is reached during pre-claim conciliation, the matter is likely to take up to 6 weeks. If however your claim proceeds to a final hearing, the case is likely to take 9-18 months based on the current processing times in Employment Tribunals. This is just an estimate and we will of course be able to give you a more accurate timescale once we have more information and as the matter progresses. As a general rule, the longer the case is estimated to last, the longer it will take to get a hearing date.

Contact us

Contact us for specialist employment law advice today (07956 085635 / info@slatelegal.co.uk) or complete our enquiry form and we'll aim to get back to you within 1 working day.