Employment Law Pricing – Individuals

Fixed Fee Costs

If you are seeking to establish if you have sufficient grounds for a claim or you are simply requiring one off legal advice relating to your employment situation. Whether or not that be guidance regarding disciplinary procedure, redundancy, or unfair dismissal then you may seek peace of mind by booking a one-off appointment with our principal solicitor Salena Dawson, and the following fees will apply:

• 30-minute fixed fee appointment – £125 plus 20%VAT
• 1-hour fixed fee appointment – £160 plus 20% VAT

Employment Tribunal Costs

If we assess that you do sufficient grounds for a claim in an employment tribunal, we may be able to represent you under a no win no fee agreement. If you are successful with your claim, our fees will be paid from your compensation but if you are unsuccessful then we will only charge you expenses you have occurred. These charges may be travelling costs, car park fees (which do not incur vat), or barristers cost for representation at employment tribunal proportionate to do so (which may incur vat costs).

Under our no win no fee arrangement we charge a success fee of 35% of any award, this is inclusive of VAT plus expenses incurred.

If we are unable to take your claim on a no win no fee basis, or this is not the funding method for you. We are able to conduct your claim on a private basis of £225 plus 20% VAT. The likely costs for bringing or defending claims within the employment tribunal can range as follows:

• For a simple claim for bringing or defending unfair or wrongful dismissal claims – £3500 – £5000 plus 20 %VAT.
• For a medium complexity claim – £5000 – £10500 plus 20%vat.
• For a high complexity claim – £10500 – £18000 plus 20%vat.

There are various reasons a case becomes more complex, and these can relate to the issues at hand, defending or making costs applications, claims being defended that are brought by litigants in person, the number of witnesses and documents, allegation to discrimination.

For representation at an Employment Tribunal there is the additional charge of attending being £450 plus 20% VAT per half day (up to 2 and a half hours) or £750 plus 20% VAT for a full days attendance.

Disbursements

We would discuss with you if it were proportionate to instruct the services of a barrister to represent you at Tribunal, this usually occurs if multiple days of representation are required within the employment tribunal.

Disbursements of costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties such as court fees. We handle the payment of disbursements upon your behalf to ensure a smoother process.

Barristers fees are estimated between £750 and £1500 plus 20% VAT per day (depending on the experience of the advocate) for attending tribunal hearings including preparation.

Key Stages

The fees set out above cover the work in relation to the following key stages:

• Taking your initial instructions,
• Reviewing the papers and advising you on the merits and the likely compensation (this is likely to be revisited throughout the matter and subject to change),
• Entering into pre-claim conciliation, this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached,
• Preparing claim in response,
• Reviewing and advising on claim or response from the other party,
• Exploring settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process,
• Preparing or considering a schedule of loss,
• Exchanging documentation with other party and agreeing bundle of documents,
• Taking witness statements, drafting statements, and agreeing the content of witnesses,
• Preparing bundle of documents,
• Reviewing and advising on the other parties witness statements,
• Agreeing a list of issues chronology or and/or cast list
• Preparation and attendance at final hearing, including instructions to counsel.

The stages above are an indication, and if some stages above are not required the fee will be reduces.

You may wish to handle the claim yourself, and only have advice in relation to some of the stages. This can be arranged on the individual need.

Settlement Agreement Costs

We can offer a fixed fee to prepare your Settlement Agreement, which will normally be covered by your employer.

Our fixed fee for advising on agreements normally range between £350 to £650 plus 20%VAT.

How long will my matter take?

The time that it takes from taking your initial instructions to finding resolution to you matter depends largely on the stage at which your case is resolved. If the settlement is reached during a pre claim conciliation, your case is likely to take 6 to 8 weeks. If your claim proceeds to final hearing, your case is likely to take 48 weeks. This is just an estimate, and we will of course be able to give you a more accurate time scale once we have more information and the matter progresses.

VAT

The current VAT rate is 20%.