Expertise
Our extensive experience in employment law means that we are happy to act for both employers and employees in employment matters . This could be in the form of pre-court correspondence with your (ex-)employer or (ex-)employee.
For Employees
In our experience some of the common matters for which you may require our help include:
- Contractual disputes with an employer who had employed you
- A wrongful or unfair dismissal
- Workplace discrimination or harassment
- Advice on a settlement agreement if your employer is making you redundant or you have mutually come to an agreement to terminate your employment
- Pursuing and advising on any other claim you wish to make against an employer, ex-employer, colleague or ex-colleague
For Employers
As for employers, we find ourselves representing them in the below matters:
- Drafting, reviewing and negotiating employment contracts
- Advising on employee greivance handling
- Advising on equality, diversity and discrimination issues
- Advising on emploee wage and working hours greivances
- Advising on emploee holiday pay underpayment greivances
- Representation at the Employment Tribunal
- Defending against any other claim made by an employee or ex-employee
Main Stages
- Taking initial instructions. This applies whether you are an employer or employee. Based on those instructions we will review documents and advise on the merits and likely compensation. You will recieve advice on the merits of your case on an ongoing basis, as this is likely to change as the case proceeds.
- Entering into ACAS Early Conciliation process (where mandatory) to see if settlement can be reached
- Drafting and filing a claim form (ET1 Form) for a claimant (employee) or a response form (ET3 Form) for a respondent (employer)
- Drafting and calculating a schedule of loss
- Preparing and attending a Case Management Discussion or Preliminary Hearing (either in person or via telephone conference call)
- Complying with document disclosure process and agreeing a bundle of documents for any hearing(s)
- Meeting/discussing evidence and drafting witness statements
- Liaising with the other party regarding a List of Issues and/or Chronology
- Preparing for and attending a Final Hearing, including instructing Counsel and attending Counsel in conference
Complicating Factors
While we do our best to avoid your matter becoming too complicated, at times this is unavoidable.
The following factors can result in a more complicated case than first anticipated and it is important that you are aware of them:
- Existence of preliminary issues (eg whether the claim is presented within time)
- Amending your claim or defence
- Providing further and better particulars (eg if you approach us after issuing the claim yourself)
- The number of parties in the case
- Making and Defending interim applications
- The level of disclosure involved in the case i.e. documents served by each party
- An element of whistleblowing
- Number of witnesses being proposed by each party
- Special requirements
- Group litigation
Pricing
All costs given on our website are only indicative of a typical case. We will assess each case based on its own complexities, merits and foreseeable costs.
Fee Structures:
Our most common fee structure in this department is ‘hourly rate’ and is charged at our solicitor’s rate of £300 + VAT in line with HMCTS guidance for solicitors’ with more than 8 years’ experience.
Alternative fee structures can only be explored with consideration of your specific case. Rest assured, you will be advised on whether are alternative methods available to you when you seek to instruct us at a consultation with the solicitor.
For information purposes this can either be a:
- Conditional-Fee Agreement – commonly known as ‘no win, no fee’ in which you pay us a success fee at the end of the case (typically no more than 25% of the damages you recover)
- Damages-Based Agreement – in which you pay an agreed percentage of the damages you are awarded by a court, employment tribunal or through agreed settlement with the employer/employee once that award has been made.
Price Transparency
Non-Contentious Work
| Work Type | Approximate total fees (VAT to be paid at a rate of 20%) |
| Disciplinary and Greivance Procedures | £1,500 + VAT |
| Contracts of Employment, handbooks and policies review | £1,000 + VAT |
| Director’s Service Agreements | £1,000 + VAT |
| Compromise Agreements | £1,000 + VAT |
| Redundancy | £750 + VAT |
| Transfers of Business | £5,000 + VAT |
| Restrictive Covenants | £1,000 + VAT |
| Part-Time Workers & Flexible Working Requests | £1,000 + VAT |
| Privacy & Data Protection at Work | £1,500 + VAT |
Contentious Work
| Work Type | Approximate total fees (VAT to be paid at a rate of 20%) |
| Case ends at conciliation, mediation or otherwise prior to issuing tribunal proceedings | £2,000 – £5,000 + VAT |
| Case proceeds to tribunal and settles at early stages of proceedings through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) | £6,000 – £8,000 + VAT |
| Straightforward unfair or wrongful dismissal Employment Tribunal claim (2 days) for employer or employee | £10,000 – £15,00 + VAT |
| Complicated or longer unfair or wrongful dismissal Employment Tribunal claims | £40,000 – £50,000 + VAT |
| Likely Disbursements | Approximate cost (VAT to be paid at a rate of 20%) |
| Barrister’s fees | Preliminary/case management hearing: £850 – £1,200 + VAT Substantive 1-3 day hearing: £1,550 – £6,250 + VAT |
| Barrister’s Advice on or Drafting of Pleadings | £600 – £1,000 + VAT (depending on seniority of counsel chosen) |
| Medical expert report (if required) | £1,000 + VAT (depending on specialism of expert) |
Enforcement Proceedings
In the event that any settlement award and/or costs (whether ordered by a tribunal or agreed by way of consent) remains unpaid by the employer/employee we may need to register the debt with the county court for enforceability purposes so that the unpaid sum can be recovered as a county court debt. In such cases the following court fees may become applicable subject to the preferred route of enforcement.
| Likely Disbursements | Approximate cost |
| Registering with County Court for enforcement | Can be found at this link |
| Application to court to order the debtor to attend court to provide information | Can be found at this link |
| Application to issue warrant of control | Can be found at this link |
| Application to issue warrant of possession | Can be found at this link |
| Application for attachment of earnings order | Can be found at this link |
| Application for Third party debt order | Can be found at this link |
| Application for Charging Order | Can be found at this link |
Typical Case Cost Examples
- If your case concludes at conciliation, mediation or otherwise prior to issuing tribunal/court proceedings then the costs estimate is likely to be £10,00.00 + VAT
- If the case proceeds to tribunal/court and settles at the early stages of proceedings by way of Alternative Dispute Resolution (eg settlement by agreement, negotiations, arbitration, mediation etc) then the costs are likely to reach £15,00.00 + VAT
- If the case proceeds to the final hearing and if a straightforward unfair or wrongful dismissal claim lasting 2 days the typical period for these claims in an Employment Tribunal, we would anticipate our fees (for either employers or employees) to reach between £25,000 – £30,000 + VAT
- If the case proceeds to the final hearing and is complicated or protracted (such as those involving an element of unlawful discrimination or whistleblowing), our total fees will be significantly more than stated above and could amount to £40,000 – £50,000 + VAT
Timescales
You may be wondering how long your matter will take from first instructing us until the conclusion of the case.
This short answer is that the timescale of your case will depend on the stage at which the conclusion takes place.
If the case settles prior to issuing court/tribunal proceedings and during the ‘out-of-court settlement’ phase then it is likely to resolve within 6-12 weeks.
However, if the court claim is issued but settles at judicial mediation then the case may take up to 6-9 months.
In the event that the case proceeds to a final hearing, it is likely that your case may take up to 1 year (or longer depending on when the tribunal can accommodate a hearing date for your case).
Of course, the timescale is not rigid and will depend on many factors including the complexity of the case, the nature of complaints, the response from the Employer, the number of witnesses involved and potentially other factors.