Employment Law Training - BRM Solicitors

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Employment Law for Employees

Expert advice when you need it from our friendly and approachable team.

We understand that having any issue with your employer whether during or after your employment can be a stressful and emotional time.

It is often difficult to know where to turn for help and advice, and going to see a solicitor can be daunting.

Our employment solicitors and lawyers pride themselves on being approachable, friendly and not making presumptions. We always ask you what you want to achieve, and it is important that we understand what you want to achieve and explain to you whether and how this can be done. Everything you tell us is confidential and will not go any further unless you want it to.

We can offer you advice on how to avoid Employment Tribunal proceedings by using the grievance procedure correctly or resolving the matter by way of settlement negotiations. This may include entering into a settlement agreement or ACAS early conciliation.

Quite often, our Employment Team can resolve employment issues by discussing them with your employer or past employer at an early stage. This may mean the difference between you staying at work or leaving your job and saving you money in legal costs.

If the matter does end up at an Employment Tribunal hearing, you can be assured that our experience will guarantee that you get the best possible outcome.

Our specialist solicitors can help you with any employment or regulatory issues you may have, including:

Unfair dismissal
Wrongful dismissal
ACAS code of practice and ACAS early conciliation
Grievances
Age discrimination, sex discrimination, race discrimination, disability discrimination
Stress at work/absence from work/illness/long term sickness
Settlement agreements
Bad references/negligent references
Your contract of employment/terms and conditions of employment
Retirement
Disputes relating to wages, pay and bonuses or an unlawful deduction from wages
National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage
Holidays
Whistle-blowing and Protected Interest Disclosure
Regulatory, fitness to practice, breach of CQC, HCPC hearings

Key Contact

Amy Hallam

Tel: 0114 3496989 Email: amy.hallam@brmlaw.co.uk

A judges gavel on a table signifying a Court decision

26 July 2017 by BRM Employment Tribunal Fees Ruled Unlawful Amy Hallam , Employment Law , Employment Law 2017 , Employment Tribunal Fees , Glenn Jaques

Fees and the work involved

How much will this cost?

We do not charge fixed fees for making or defending a claim in the Employment Tribunal and any work we carry out will be charged by reference to the hourly rate of the solicitors who undertake the work which is based on an hourly rate of £275 plus VAT (of 20% being £55), totalling £330.

By the very nature of this type of work, it is not possible to give you a definitive quote without further information from you because this will be entirely dependent upon the amount of work required and the particular circumstances of your matter. However, from our experience, we are able to give you an estimated range of likely fees as follows for taking all steps up to but excluding the final hearing stage.

Our fee estimate for bringing and defending claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal is set out below:

Simple case: £5,000 to £10,000 (excluding VAT and disbursements)
Medium complexity case: £10,000 to £20,000 (excluding VAT and disbursements)
High complexity case: £20,000 to £50,000 (excluding VAT and disbursements)

Factors that could make a case more complex:

If it is necessary to make or defend applications, to amend claims or to provide further information about an existing claim
Where the facts to be determined span a lengthy period of time
Defending claims that are brought by litigants in person
Making or defending a costs application
Complex preliminary issues such as whether the claimant is disabled (if this is not agreed by the parties)
Where more than one preliminary hearings are required
Where separate hearings for remedy are required after a liability hearing
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
Where a claim involves a variety of claims or more than one claimant is involved

If necessary, there will be an additional charge for one of our solicitors to attend a final Tribunal Hearing of up to £2,250 plus VAT per day (based on up to 10 hours of work including travelling time). Generally, we would allow 1-10 days for the final hearing depending on the complexity of your case. The length of the hearing is often set by the Employment Tribunal as soon as a case is issued or at a preliminary hearing, which is relatively near to the beginning of a claim, at which point we can provide a more precise estimate of the cost for the final hearing.

Disbursements and other costs

Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are out of pocket expenses and often payable to third parties such as Counsel’s fees or travel expenses. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.

Counsel’s fees will be incurred where we instruct a barrister to undertake work on your case such as drafting complex court documents or to attend the final hearing, although we will do some advocacy ourselves for you instead of instructing Counsel where appropriate. Where Counsel is instructed (with your authority) to attend the final hearing, a brief fee will be incurred (in addition to any fees of attendance by the solicitor conducting your case if their attendance is appropriate). Counsel will normally charge a daily rate for the second and subsequent days of the final hearing (known as refresher fees).

The brief fees (which usually cover the Barrister’s preparation and attendance on the first day of the trial) can vary between £1,000 to £15,000 plus VAT. The level of fee will vary depending on the experience of Counsel as well as the complexity of the issues, the amount of documents they need to review and the length of any final hearing. Refresher fees vary and can be between £1,000 plus VAT to £5,000 plus VAT for the second and each subsequent day of trial.

Who will deal with your case?

We have four members of the team who may work on your matter, together with support staff who carry out administrative roles. The Head of Department is Amy Hallam who will supervise the other team members.

Amy Hallam
Position: Director & Department Head
Hourly Rate: £350.00 (+ VAT at 20%)

Ellie Leatherday
Position: Associate
Hourly Rate: £280.00 (+ VAT at 20%)

Jade Taylor
Position: Paralegal
Hourly Rate: £200.00 (+ VAT at 20%)

Georgia Jeonney
Position: Trainee Solicitor
Hourly Rate: £210.00 (+ VAT at 20%)

How long will this process take?

The time that it takes from listening to your initial instructions to the final resolution of your matter depends largely on the stage at which your case is resolved and the point in time where we are instructed. If a settlement is reached during pre-claim conciliation, your case is likely to take 2-8 weeks.

If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, your case is likely to take 26-52 weeks and in some cases this can be longer where we are engaged by you at a stage where internal employment processes are still ongoing. This is only an estimate and we will be able to provide you with a more accurate timescale once we have further information and as the matter progresses while also taking into account your individual needs, circumstances and instructions.

Key stages

The fees set out above cover all of the work in relation to the following key stages of a claim including, but not limited to, the following:

Taking your initial instructions, reviewing the papers and advising you on merits and likely compensation (this is likely to be revisited throughout the matter and subject to change) that may be awarded to you or against you. We will also advise on our own costs at this stage, as well as advising you of the likelihood of recovering any costs you incur from the other side and the risk you may have of having to pay the other party’s costs if your claim or the defence of a claim is unsuccessful;
Entering into pre-claim conciliation where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached/ engaging in pre-claim conciliation to establish what the claimant wants to achieve in settlement of their claim;
Preparing the claim or the response to the claim;
Reviewing and advising on any claim or response or other documents that may be received from the other party. This may include requests for further information;
Exploring settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process;
Preparing or considering a schedule of loss and where necessary advising on mitigation evidence and/or preparing a counter schedule of loss;
Preparing for (and attending) a Preliminary Hearing;
Exchanging documents with the other party, preparing an agreed list and bundle of documents;
Taking witness statements, drafting witness statements and agreeing their content with witnesses and exchanging them with the other side prior to the hearing and in accordance with any Employment Tribunal directions;
Reviewing and advising on the other party’s witness statements and where necessary preparing supplemental witness statements;
Agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list and/or reading list for the final hearing;
Preparation and attendance at the final hearing, including preparing instructions to the Counsel and attending any conferences with the Counsel that might be necessary;
The stages set out above are an indication and if some of stages above are not required then the final costs total will reflect this. Ultimately, the amount of costs incurred will be dependent upon the amount of inter-party correspondence that has occurred between the parties as well as the amount of contact and correspondence with you throughout the proceedings, and at which stage the claim is resolved. You may wish to handle some or all of the parts of the claim/defence yourself and only have us provide advice in relation to some aspects or how to prepare a certain court document. In these cases, our time is charged on a time spent basis and we will provide you with an estimate of our costs to meet your individual needs in these type of cases.

The above fee estimates do not include any work or advice required with regard to any appeal of an Employment Tribunal decision or an application for costs or defence of an application for costs against you except where this is dealt with as part of the final hearing.

Our Employment Law Team Looking for another BRM team member? Search our team below.

Amy Hallam Director

Ellie Leatherday Associate Solicitor

Jade Taylor Trainee Solicitor