Employment Tribunal Claims

Our team are experienced in delivering high quality work in all matters relating to employment law and is ranked in both Chambers’ Legal Directory and the Legal 500.  We are mindful of the need to ensure that our advice is cost effective.  Therefore the work you instruct us to do will be undertaken by one of our specialist employment solicitors, based on the level of expertise and complexity of the work, supported by a paralegal where appropriate e.g. in the preparation of document bundles or more routine communications.

Regardless of who works on your matter, they will be supervised by Mel McCrum, Partner Solicitor and Head of Department.

At the beginning of the process, we will meet with you to discuss the tribunal claim or defence (depending on whether you are the Claimant bringing the claim or the Respondent against whom the claim is made) and the extent to which you require our assistance. After that meeting we will provide you with our fees for what we anticipate the work will cost for your particular case. Each case is different and it is very difficult to tell at the outset what your total costs will be.

If the work transpires to be more complex during the process, we will notify you if the fee estimate is to be increased and seek your approval before carrying out further work. We will keep you regularly updated on costs throughout the process. You will not usually be able to recover these fees from the other party even if you win.

We have set out below the key stages of tribunal proceedings and, based on our experience, the likely range of costs you could expect to pay for those stages.  You may not need our advice at every stage perhaps because you decide to do this yourself or because it is unnecessary; not every claim has a preliminary as well as a final hearing and it is often the case that the claim will settle prior to the final hearing.  We have set out below some of the other factors that will affect these costs and could result in your fees being at the top end or even higher than the ranges we have set out.   

• If it is necessary to make or defend an application to the tribunal to amend your ET1 or ET3 (see glossary), or to provide further information about an existing claim or defence. 
• Any additional work caused by ACAS (see glossary) or Employment Tribunal delays.
• Where the conduct of the other party (or their representative) is disruptive to the proceedings e.g. they delay in or fail to comply with deadlines.
• Defending claims that are brought by a litigant in person (see glossary) because this can often lead to an increased level of correspondence and it is likely that the represented party will carry out more of the joint tribunal preparation (i.e. bundles). It may be necessary to spend time explaining legal principles and points of tribunal procedure to the other party which is generally not necessary where both parties are represented.
• If there are delays in obtaining your instructions (see glossary). 
• Where you require written rather than oral advice.
• Making or defending a costs application (see glossary).
• Where there is a preliminary hearing (see glossary).
• The number of relevant witnesses and documents.
• Documents being provided to us in an ad hoc and piecemeal manner.
• The Schedule of Loss (see glossary) requires valuation of more complex and high value remuneration packages including for example: share schemes, certain pension schemes, bonus schemes or commission.
• Hearings being delayed or postponed.
• If there are additional claims such as unlawful discrimination or unpaid wages, particularly if they rely on different facts to claims of unfair dismissal or wrongful dismissal.
• The length of the trial and whether there are separate hearings for liability (i.e. whether or not the tribunal claim is successful) and (if it is) the quantum i.e. the value of any tribunal awards.

Your legal fees for the likely work to be expected in typical cases of both unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal for Claimants and Respondents can be broken down as set out below for the key stages of each claim. Any work outside the basic scope of each stage will be charged at our hourly rates although we will give an estimate of these fees when we can.  It is likely that fees for a wrongful dismissal only claim, will be lower than those for an unfair dismissal claim as it is usually much more straightforward. It may therefore not be cost effective for you to instruct us in a wrongful dismissal claim on a full retainer basis (where we conduct the case for you and appear on the tribunal record as your solicitors).  

For either or both claims, as they are often filed together, you may instruct us for every stage or you may only require our advice for some parts of the proceedings on a ‘pay as you go basis.’ This is called an unbundled legal service and we will tell you if we think it is appropriate to offer it to you and agree the costs with you.

If a settlement is reached during pre-claim conciliation (see glossary) this will be within 4 – 6 weeks of the Claimant first contacting Acas.  If no settlement is agreed, tribunal proceedings can then instigated by the Claimant.  It is likely to take around 2 – 6 months for any preliminary hearing to take place and a further 3 – 12 months to the final hearing.  

We will give you a more accurate timescale for your own particular case once we have more information and as the matter progresses.  Much depends on the employment tribunals (which can take several weeks or even months to process paperwork) and the co-operation of the other party, over which we have no control.  Cases that have several witnesses and so require a hearing of several days will wait longer for hearing dates.  Most claims settle before the employment tribunal final hearing.

Barristers are called “counsel”.  They are specialist advocates who conduct trials.  If a barrister is required, her fee will depend on how experienced she is and how long the hearing is due to last. 

Counsel’s fees are estimated to be between £1,000 (plus £200 VAT) to £6,000 (plus £1,200 VAT) per day (depending on the experience of the advocate) for attending a Tribunal Hearing (excluding preparation).  Generally for a straightforward case you would expect to pay up to £2,500 (plus £500 VAT) per day.  Preparation will generally be charged on a time spent basis and the time taken will depend on the complexity of the matter.  Counsel’s hourly rates are estimated to be between £150 (plus £30 VAT) and £750 (plus £150 VAT) depending on the experience of the advocate.

We will charge you for photocopying, at 5p per sheet for a black and white A4 page, 25p A4 colour, 10p A3 BW, 50p colour (most commonly for the preparation of bundles for the hearing which is usually the Respondent’s responsibility).

VAT is added on to the cost at 20%, so 100 pages of black and white photocopying would cost £5, plus £1 VAT.

If we need to obtain documents from Companies House we will pass on to you the cost of this service, which varies depending on which documents are applied for. Companies House fees do not incur VAT.

If it is necessary to send documents urgently to counsel, an expert or a witness we will charge you for the cost of the courier.  The cost depends on the urgency, the weight of the package and the distance. Courier fees incur VAT at 20%.

There are currently no tribunal fees although this is currently under review by the government.

We may occasionally need to instruct an expert to prepare a report (they would not usually be expected to give evidence at tribunal) in support of your claim or defence.  The expert’s fee will depend on the amount of work she is required to do and usually this will be a fixed fee.  In unfair or wrongful dismissal claims we may instruct a forensic accountant to value a complex pension scheme.