Employment Charging Information

Employment Charging Information

We act for employers, employees, workers and self-employed contractors providing advice on both contentious and non-contentious matters relating to all aspects of employment law.

We adopt a partner led approach so each matter will have a supervising partner with trainee assistance.

Partner                 £250 plus VAT

Trainee                 £175 plus VAT

The profiles of the employment partner and our trainees can be viewed on our website.

Fees

We can offer a variety of pricing arrangements for clients based on hourly rate or fixed fee options. We are happy to provide information relating to a particular matter on request.

This costs information below is given in relation to claims for unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal before the Employment Tribunal only, whether we are acting for an employee who is bringing such a claim or an employer/business which is defending such a claim.

An employee dismissed by their employer may have a claim for unfair dismissal.  They may have a claim for wrongful dismissal if their employer fails to provide the relevant period of notice or a payment in lieu of the relevant notice period.

We can assist you with making and defending any tribunal claims and will provide you with either a costs estimate or a fixed fee option for the particular work that you instruct us to do.  In respect of Tribunal claims, due to the nature of the work we usually charge on an hourly basis in six-minute units.  However, we may in some circumstances agree a fixed fee with you for a particular stage of the claim; if a fixed fee has been agreed, our costs will not exceed that fixed fee unless something unexpected happens in relation to that stage of the proceedings which makes the costs higher than initially anticipated by us.

We do not offer conditional fee arrangements for employment tribunal work.

Basis for our charges and cost of the service

Our fee estimates and charges will depend upon the circumstances and complexity of the claim.

Factors likely to add to the complexity of a case include the following;

• Detailed settlement discussions
• Dealing with complex preliminary issues such as jurisdictional issues regarding employment status or time limits
• Interim applications such as applications to amend claims or to provide further information
• Defending claims that are brought by litigants in person
• costs applications
• volume of witnesses required
• number and complexity of claims made
• volume of documents

Subject to the above, we set out below the range of costs that could be expected in a ‘Simple’, ‘Medium Complexity’ and ‘Highly Complex’ case for unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal cases including whistleblowing claims but not discrimination claims.  These costs are exclusive of VAT:

Complexity                         Fee range for employees               Fee range for employers

Low                                      £10,000 to £20,000                        £20,000 to £40,000

Medium                              £20,000 to £40,000                        £40,000 to £60,000

High                                     £40,000 +                                          £60,000+

The fees set out above would typically cover all 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 award (this is likely to be revisited throughout the matter and subject to change)
• Entering into pre-claim conciliation
• Preparing your claim or response
• Reviewing and advising on your claim or response from the other party.
• Agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or a list of those matters relevant to the facts of the case
• Exploring a settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process.
• Preparing or considering a Schedule of Loss
• Preparing for (and attending) a Preliminary Hearing; for example a Case Management Conference
• Collating documents relevant to the claim
• Exchanging documents with the other party and agreeing a bundle of documents
• Taking witness statements, drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses
• Preparing the hearing bundles
• Reviewing and advising on the other parties’ witness statements
• Preparation and attendance of final hearing including preparing instructions to a barrister.

The stages set out above are an indication of what may be expected and if some of the stages are not required, our costs would be reduced accordingly.  You may wish to handle all or part of a claim yourself and only have our advice in relation to some of the stages.

It is also important to note that in the vast majority of cases we reach an agreed settlement with the other side and claims more often than not, do not proceed to a full hearing before the Employment Tribunal.

Should the matter progress to a hearing, you can expect the hearing to be listed within the following timescales depending upon complexity.  The length of the hearing has a direct bearing on the total cost of the service:

• A straightforward unfair dismissal or wrongful dismissal claim may only take one day for the hearing before the Employment Tribunal
• A medium complexity case would be a two-to-four-day hearing before the Employment Tribunal
• A high complexity case would involve a hearing lasting for more than four days.

Many individuals have insurance cover that covers some or all of their costs of bringing employment law claims.

VAT

Where VAT applies, then we add this to our charges at the prevailing rate. The figures quoted above all include VAT at 20%.  Most disbursements attract VAT at the prevailing rate. This will be added to the bills we receive.  We pass the total cost on to you.  We do not add VAT on to disbursements where VAT has already been added by the relevant third party.  Certain disbursements, such as official fees, are not subject to VAT. Where our services are not a vatable supply, then we do not charge VAT and the quote above is reduced by 20%.

Disbursements

Disbursements are costs relating to your matter that are payable to third parties such as barristers’/counsel’s fees and photocopying costs.  Our fees do not include payments which would have to be made to third parties. The cost of disbursements plus VAT will be passed onto you and included in our invoice.  We handle the payment of disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.

The main disbursement in all cases will be for barristers’ fees.  Barristers are usually instructed to advise in conference with us and to draft the Particulars of Claim or the Response (the defence) to a claim as applicable. Barristers may also be instructed to represent you at any preliminary hearing that is listed by the Employment Tribunal (depending on the complexity of the case) to include the drafting of the ‘list of issues’ which is a list of the matters an Employment Tribunal will have to decide at the full hearing.

The barrister will also be instructed to represent you at the final hearing before the Employment Tribunal.

Barristers’ fees can vary hugely depending on the experience of the barrister.  The decision as to which barrister to instruct, and at what level, will be made by you in in conjunction with us and we will provide you with detailed costs estimates before instruction.

Timescales

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 one to two months. If your claim proceeds to a final hearing, your case is likely to take six to twelve months but may possibly take as long as two years or more in certain circumstances. 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. You should also note that the progress of your matter will be affected by when clerks to the Employment Tribunal list your matter to be heard.