Generally, employment tribunal claims can last between 12 and 18 months. However, this is purely a guideline and will be dictated by the capacity of the employment tribunal hearing the claim, which is a third party to this firm.

Claims typically are not quick because there are plenty of obligations to be met before getting to the full hearing. These include disclosing documents to your opponent, preparing witness statements, preparing your legal argument, trying to agree the issues to be determined with your opponent and preparing bundles of relevant documents to be used at the tribunal.

Additionally, throughout the process, there is an obligation to try to settle a claim without having to rely on the employment tribunal at all. It is possible to settle a claim as late as the day of the full hearing.

A no win, no fee agreement is not an automatic entitlement for Employment Law work.

We are happy to consider a no win, no fee agreement; what we need to do is to evaluate your claim before we can offer such an agreement, for which we will be entitled to charge fees. We can agree a fixed fee with you for doing this.

If we can offer you a no win, no fee agreement, this will be at the strict discretion of this firm’s directors.

Yes. We regularly help clients with settlement agreements.

The likely costs rely on a number of factors:-

1. Your employer will usually contribute to your legal fees in receiving advice on the settlement agreement and any claims that you will be waiving if you agree to it. As you are our client, you will bear the responsibility for paying those fees if your employer defaults in making payment, but we will try to compel your employer to make payment before asking you to pay those fees (we have yet to find an employer that has not paid the fees).

2. If you would like us to represent you in negotiating amendments to the settlement agreement with your employer, this will not be covered by the contribution that your employer is making towards your legal fees. You may wish to negotiate with your employer directly with us advising you in the background or you may wish us to perform those negotiations on your behalf; either way, additional legal fees with become payable. There are two approaches that we often provide to clients for paying for our assistance in this regard:-

a) Our Employment Law Solicitor, Richard Hiron charges £200 plus VAT per hour for additional work;

b) We could agree that, if you would like the Termination Payment in your settlement agreement to be increased, we charge you 10% plus VAT of the difference in the increase (i.e. if the original Termination Payment is £10,000 and we negotiate it to be increased to £17,000, then we would charge £700 plus VAT) for the additional work. Naturally, if there is no increase, then you will not be required to pay additional fees;

c) If you do not want the Termination Payment to be increased, but you do wish to have other elements of the settlement agreement amended, then we can explore a fixed fee service with you.

Most of our clients tend to prefer options (b) and (c) above as they tend to be more cost-effective for them.

Our Employment Solicitor, Richard Hiron has also prepared guidance on the settlement agreement process (https://tplegal-ltd.com/og-content/uploads/1603105089Settlement%20Agreement%20FAQs.pdf ) which should help to answer other questions that you might have.

Employment Law For You

Yes.

Since 6 April 2020, it has been a legal entitlement to have a contract of employment on or before the day that the employee starts work.

If not, then:-

• If the employee brings a successful substantive claim for another matter, then they can also claim 2 weeks’ additional pay for the failure to be given a contract; or

• The employment tribunal may, at its discretion, award them 4 weeks’ additional pay.

For the cost of providing a legally binding contract of employment, it is therefore best to avoid having these costly claims raised against you in the employment tribunal, even if that contract purely reflects an employee’s statutory minimum entitlements.

We would also recommend having a suite of policies available to govern acceptable practices within your business.

These will depend on numerous factors, including the nature of the claim that has been brought against the business, the complexity of the legal arguments to be made and the approach taken by your opponent.

If the claim is solely for unfair dismissal and/or wrongful dismissal, please see our Price Transparency Rules page ( https://tplegal-ltd.com/price-transparency) for further information on the likely costs.

Our Employment Law Solicitor, Richard Hiron charges £200 plus VAT per hour and will keep you informed of the likely costs as the claim progresses. We may also be able to agree a fixed fee for representing you in the employment tribunal.

Generally, employment tribunal claims can last between 12 and 18 months. However, this is purely a guideline and will be dictated by the capacity of the employment tribunal hearing the claim, which is a third party to this firm.

Claims typically are not quick because there are plenty of obligations to be met before getting to the full hearing. These include disclosing documents to your opponent, preparing witness statements, preparing your legal argument, trying to agree the issues to be determined with your opponent and preparing bundles of relevant documents to be used at the tribunal.

Additionally, throughout the process, there is an obligation to try to settle a claim without having to go to the employment tribunal at all. A claim can even be settled at the door of the tribunal on the day of the full hearing.

Contact us for more details email: enquiries@tplegal-ltd.com or call on direct line 01483 668 827