Grievance procedure & hearings solicitors

• Default Judgment – typically our costs will be in the region of between £2,500 - £3,500 plus VAT (straightforward facts and legal complexity, including where you successfully bring or defend your case without going to a final hearing)
• Unfair Dismissal – typically costs in the range of £12,500 - £40,000 plus VAT (straightforward facts and legal complexity with full one day hearing, but still very much depending on the facts and numbers of witnesses and extent to which the factual matrix and legal arguments are contested and on what basis – see also factors that influence costs below)
• Constructive Unfair Dismissal – typically costs in the region of between £18,000 - £40,000 plus VAT (medium complexity)
• Unfair Dismissal  (high complexity – for instance involving allegations of unfair dismissal plus discrimination and/or whistle-blowing) -  up to £60,000 + VAT (high complexity including whistleblowing/public interest disclosure or discrimination)
• Wrongful dismissal - This will usually only be pursued in conjunction with one of the above with the above cost estimates applicable.  If the value of the claim for wrongful dismissal exceeds the cap in the Tribunal, we may advise pursuing through the civil courts and where our costs could be an additional sum between £15,000 - £100,000 plus VAT depending on the values and complexity of issues arising.

Range 

• Complexity of facts and extent to which this is disputed 

• Volume and nature of documentation involved and whether there are any issues on what documents the parties have or haven’t disclosed to each other  

• Whether or not the Tribunal lists the matter for a pre-hearing (this is a hearing before the main trial, typically when the Judge decides what legal issues there are and makes directions about what happens next)  

• Numbers of witnesses

• Number of parties involved 

• Numbers of days’ hearing the matter is scheduled for 

• Legal issues arising on if a Claimant is eligible to bring a claim and/or other procedural issues 

• How much the case is worth and legal complexity of the complaint(s) 

Key Stages and typical costs for a relatively straightforward matter (in each case plus VAT)

• Prior to claim being sent to the Employment Tribunal (including involving ACAS Early Conciliation) between the range of £750 - £3,500 
• Submitting claim(s) (ET1) to the Employment Tribunal in the region of £1,500 - £5,000 
• Drafting a defence to a claim (ET3 response) in the region of £1500 - £5000 
• Preliminary Hearing-estimated range of £1,000 - £5,000 
• Schedule of Loss £750-1500
• Exchanging relevant documents in the case (disclosure) £1500 - £5,000
• Trial Bundle of documents for the Judge to see – £750 - £3,500 (Respondent) 
• Settlement Negotiations and ACAS COT3/settlement terms during proceedings - £1,500 - £5,000 
• Witness Statements £2,500 - £7,500 
• Final Hearing £1,500 to £4,000 plus disbursements (counsel’s fees to be charged in addition) plus additional costs at hourly rates for attendance at Tribunal with Counsel if required.  

Timescales

• Issue claim – 3 months less a day from date of act complained of, subject to first submitting to ACAS early conciliation 
• To preliminary hearing (if required) – up to 5 months 
• To final hearing – 6 months to 2 years. If default judgment – matters will usually take 3-6 months to conclude, though default judgments remain rare.  

Likely Disbursements

• Barrister’s fees for Preliminary Hearing - £750 - £3,500*
• Barrister’s fees for Final Hearing - £2,500 - £10,000* (first day), £650 - £3,000* (each additional day) 

*this will depend upon the call and experience of the barrister 

Services to be provided 

Our fees include: 

• Taking instructions and reviewing documentation 
• Pre-action correspondence with other side (former employer/employee) 
• ACAS Early Conciliation steps 
• Issuing ET1 Claim form or preparing an ET3 response and correspondence with Employment Tribunal 
• Negotiations with other side* (whether direct with the other side or via ACAS) 
• Obtaining default judgment* 
• Preliminary Hearing steps, including list of issues, case management agenda (setting out the directions given by the Judge to bring the case to hearing), instructing barrister (counsel)*
• Case management steps (schedule of loss, documents, trial bundle, witness statements)
• Statement of issues/case list*
• Final hearing (including deciding on compensation payable – “remedy”) 

*where appropriate/necessary  

Charging Basis 

We charge on the basis of hourly rates, which are as follows: 

Summary  

An employment tribunal is like a court, specifically for handling employment disputes where an employee is bringing a claim against his or her employer. It’s made up of a judge sitting alone or a panel of three people, one of whom will be a judge, who will be legally qualified in employment law; the other two are lay members – that is, not judges or lawyers by profession, although they will have experience in employment issues.  One will be an employee representative, and the other an employer representative. Some cases can be heard just by the judge.  Cases of discrimination must be heard by three judges. Although it’s not a requirement to have a lawyer represent you, most people choose to have legal representation.

For a dismissal from a job to be considered potentially fair it must be on a ground set out under section 98 of the Employment Rights Act:

• redundancy
• performance 
• conduct
• illegality
• “some other substantial reason”.

For the dismissal to be fair it will often need to pass the test of being within the range of reasonable responses of an employer. The employer will need to follow an appropriate fair process to minimise the risks of a claim finding procedural unfairness. 

Sometimes the situation is such that it’s considered to be an automatic unfair dismissal. This would be when it relates to something where the employee is protected by law such as:

• maternity/paternity leave
• parental/adoption leave
• asking to be paid the minimum wage
• pregnancy
• trade union activities
• making a protected disclosure (i.e. whistleblowing).