Employment Tribunal

Employment Tribunal

Our Employment Tribunal team is able to assist employees and employers in bringing and defending the whole range of claims dealt with in the Employment Tribunal.

Employers will sometimes dismiss employees without regard to the proper procedures prescribed by the law.  If you’ve been unfairly or wrongfully dismissed by your employer then we may be able to assist you in bringing a claim and recovering the money that is rightfully yours.

Employment law is complex and specialist advice is often invaluable to employers in ensuring that proper procedures are followed in order to prevent claims of unfair or wrongful dismissal.  In the event that a claim has been made then the firm’s employment law team can ensure that the matter is dealt with so as to ensure that costs and disruption to the business are minimised.

Our team has over thirty years of collective experience in delivering high quality work in all matters relating to employment tribunal claims.  There are few areas of employment law that the team has not dealt with before.

Employment law work will generally be undertaken by Dominic Cassidy, Partner.

Dominic Cassidy – Partner

Partner Dominic Cassidy qualified as a solicitor in 1989.  Dominic specialises in Commercial and Civil Litigation.  He is an experienced Employment Tribunal advocate, invariably conducting cases without recourse to counsel.

Our Fees

Probate work is generally undertaken on an hourly rate basis.  The following information is provided to assist you in understanding how our fees are calculated.  The prices provided are indicative of the likely cost of a case and should not be taken as an absolute quote.  You must still contact us to obtain a detailed quote which takes into account the individual circumstances of your case.

We estimate that a typical employment tribunal case takes between 10 and 30 hours to complete.

The applicable hourly rates are:

Partner – £275.00 plus VAT

Associate Solicitor – £250.00 plus VAT

Trainee Solicitor – £200.00 plus VAT

Paralegal – £150.00 plus VAT

Simple case: £2,000.00-£3,500.00 (excluding VAT)

Medium complexity case: £3,500.00 -£9,000.00 (excluding VAT)

High complexity case: £9,000.00 -£35,000.00 (excluding VAT)

Factors that could make a case more complex:

• If it is necessary to make or defend applications to amend claims or to provide further information about an existing claim
• Defending claims that are brought by litigants in person
• Making or defending a costs application
• Complex preliminary issues such as whether the claimant is disabled (if this is not agreed by the parties)
• The number of witnesses and documents
• If it is an automatic unfair dismissal claim e.g. if you are dismissed after blowing the whistle on your employer
• Allegations of discrimination which are linked to the dismissal

There will be an additional charge for attending a Tribunal Hearing of £1,000 per day (excluding VAT). Generally, we would allow 1-3 days depending on the complexity of your case.

Disbursements

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

Counsel’s fees estimated between £900.00 to £1,200.00 per day (depending on experience of the advocate) plus VAT for attending a Tribunal Hearing (including preparation)

Key Stages

The fees set out above cover all of the work in relation to the following key stages of a 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 subject to change)
• Entering into pre-claim conciliation where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached;
• Preparing claim or response
• Reviewing and advising on claim or response from other party
• Exploring settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process
• preparing or considering a schedule of loss
• Preparing for (and attending) a Preliminary Hearing
• Exchanging documents with the other party and agreeing a bundle of documents
• Taking witness statements, drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses
• preparing bundle of documents
• Reviewing and advising on the other party’s witness statements
• agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list
• Preparation and attendance at Final Hearing, including instructions to Counsel

The stages set out above are an indication and if some of stages above are not required, the fee will be reduced. You may wish to handle the claim yourself and only have our advice in relation to some of the stages. This can also be arranged on your individual needs.

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. If a settlement is reached during pre-claim conciliation, your case is likely to take 4-6 weeks. If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, your case is likely to take 6-9 months. 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.