Employment solicitors

ACAS Early Conciliation & COT3 Settlement Advice

We can help you to value your claim, advise on settlement tactics & represent you at tribunal

Get in touch

Before filing a claim at an employment tribunal, you must notify ACAS via their Early Conciliation website.

ACAS will try to settle your claim with the respondent, normally your employer. However, the ACAS Conciliation Officer will not be aware of the details of your claim, its merits or the likely award. Equally, you may not be aware of its potential settlement value, so there is a risk that you may agree terms that are significantly less favourable than you may be awarded if you were to be successful at tribunal.

ACAS & COT3 Settlement / ET1 Form Guidance

How we can help with your ACAS claim

We can help you to value your claim and advise on settlement tactics to maximise what the respondent will pay you. We can also advise you on the written settlement agreement (called  COT3 settlement), which is a legally binding document that precludes you from making any further claim. For example, you may want to agree to a reference from your employer. If so it is a good idea to attach this to the agreement.

What To Do When An Employer Refuses Early Conciliation

If your employer refuses early conciliation or you do not agree to a settlement and decide to file a tribunal claim, we can assist you by confirming your deadline, preparing your claim form (called an ET1) and representing you at tribunal.

Please contact a member of our team if you would like any further information.

 

Mel McCrum

Mel McCrum

Partner, Head of Department

Employment

The team is incredibly user friendly, pragmatic and supportive in its approach

Chambers and Partners

Make an enquiry

Whether you need a quote, have a question, or would like to get in touch with one of our team, please fill out the form below and someone will get back to you as soon as possible.

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Sorry, we do not provide criminal law advice.

You may wish to contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau or your local Law Centre, who will be able to help you find support.

Sorry, we do not provide advice on consumer disputes.

You may wish to contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau or your local Law Centre, who will be able to help you find support.

Sorry, we do not provide advice on benefits related disputes.

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Please note that we are currently only providing this service to our existing clients.

You should bear in mind that if your dispute is valued at less than £10,000 you will not be able to recover your legal fees from your opponent.

You may wish to consider consulting the Citizens Advice Bureau or your local Law Centre as an alternative.

In order to enable us to give you an accurate estimate of our likely costs to advise you, we will need to review the key documents. As a guide, our costs for reviewing the key documents and giving you initial advice are likely to be in the region of £1,750+VAT.

Before we can confirm whether we are able to act for you, we need to carry out a conflict check to make sure that we have not previously acted for your opponent.

Assuming our conflict check is clear, we will contact you to arrange a time for you to speak to one of our solicitors. Please can you confirm that you still wish to proceed with this enquiry. *

Our fees for debt recovery work typically start at £1,750 + VAT, so it is unlikely that we would be able to help you on this occasion. You may wish to contact the Citizens Advice Bureau or your local law centre, who may be able to help resolve your issue.

We are sorry that we are not able to help you on this occasion.

You may wish to contact the Citizens Advice Bureau or your local law centre, who may be able to help resolve your issue.

If your claim relates to an incident that took place more than 4 years ago, you may not be able to bring a claim unless you were under 18 years old at the time.

We are sorry, but it is unlikely that we are able to help you with your claim on this occasion.

You may wish to contact the Citizens Advice Bureau or your local law centre, who will be able to help you find support.

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