In the interests of transparency, this guide aims to provide you with some practical guidance on our estimated fees for advising and representing you in bringing or defending a claim for unfair or wrongful dismissal in the employment tribunal.
We will always be happy to discuss what work is likely to be involved when dealing with your matter and provide you with a bespoke estimate.
Our estimated range of fees for advising you and representing you in bringing or defending a claim for unfair or wrongful dismissal are:
• Simple case: £7,500 - £15,000 (plus VAT at 20%)
• Medium complexity case: £15,000 - £20,000 (plus VAT at 20%)
• High complexity case: £20,000 - £25,000 (plus VAT at 20%)
Our fees are based on an hourly charge out rate of £300 (plus VAT at 20%) and are calculated by reference to the amount of time spent by us working on your matter.
As all cases are different and costs vary from case to case, please contact us to discuss your matter so we can provide you with an individual estimate.
Factors that could make a case more complex and therefore affect our fees:
• 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 an employee or worker (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
• The duration of any hearing fixed by the employment tribunal.
In addition to our fees, we will charge you for any third party expenses we incur on your behalf. These are known as disbursements, and include items such as barrister’s fees.
You are responsible for these expenses, though we would usually handle their payment for you to ensure a smoother process and add these costs to your invoice.
Barrister’s fees typically range between £750 to £5,000 (plus VAT at 20%) per day for preparing for and attending an employment tribunal hearing (depending on the experience of the advocate and the complexity of the case).
Our 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 subject to change)
• Entering into pre-claim conciliation where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached
• Preparing the claim or response
• Reviewing and advising on the 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 a Final Hearing, including instructions to the barrister who will represent you at that hearing.
The stages set out above are an indication and if some of stages above are not required, our fees will be lower than anticipated above. 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.
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 between four to eight weeks.
Based on the latest statistics published by the Ministry of Justice, if your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, your case may take between 43 weeks and 122 weeks.
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.
Your matter will be handled by the firm’s Principal, Richard Shears, a Solicitor Advocate with over fourteen years’ post-qualification experience.
Specialising in employment-related and commercial disputes as well as business debt recovery, Richard offers a practical and user friendly service to a wide variety of clients across many industries, from owner managed businesses to multi-national organisations.
