Pricing Information for individuals in relation to Employment Tribunals (claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal).

All of the fee information set out below is based on the following hourly rates of lawyers within our team.

The range of hourly rates within each band of lawyers depends on the seniority of the lawyer, and their office location.

The indicative cost of each stage of the process will depend on the seniority of the lawyer who is advising you - this would always be your choice - and where the lawyer is based (this would depend on where you are based, and the likely venue for the Employment Tribunal claim).

Please note that any reference to VAT is at the current rate of 20% unless otherwise stated.

We have a range of experienced individuals who would work on your case. In order to find out more about who they are, their qualifications and level of experience please follow the link.

Stage 1: Initial assessment of your case

This would be the first stage of our work with you.

 It would involve:

• Taking instructions from you to understand your position;
• Reviewing all of the relevant documents; and
• Advising you about the strengths and weaknesses of your case, and providing you with an idea of how likely it is to succeed.

The typical range of costs for this stage is:  £600 to £4,200 including VAT, depending on:

• How complicated the instruction is;
• How complicated the legal issues are;
• How many documents there are for us to consider; and
• Whether you would like us to advise you in person, in writing or over the phone - again, this would be your choice.  Advising in person or in writing tends to be more expensive than advising by telephone.

Stage 2: Pre-claim conciliation 

If following our advice you would like to start a formal claim process, you would need to lodge a claim notification with an organisation called ACAS.

 At this stage, we would: 

• Help you lodge your claim notification to ACAS, which is the first stage of the process; and
• Help you with any negotiations during this "Pre-Claim Conciliation" period.

The typical range of costs for this stage is:  £600 to £2,400 including VAT, depending on:

• How complicated the story is;
• How complicated the legal issues are; and
• The attitude taken by you and your former employer to the negotiation process.  For example:  they might make an offer which is acceptable to you, or they may say that they are not prepared to negotiate at all, which would mean that the process would be very short, or there may be detailed negotiations.

Stage  3A: Recording a statement

If the negotiations during the Pre-Claim Conciliation process achieve a settlement for you, those terms will need to be recorded in a document called a "COT3" (or potentially a Settlement Agreement).

We would negotiate the terms of the Agreement and manage the signature process for you.

The typical range of costs for this stage is:  £600 to £1,800 including VAT, depending on:

• How complicated the legal issues are;
• The complexity of the Agreement; and
• The attitude taken by you and your former employer to the negotiation of the terms of the Agreement.

Stage 3B: Issuing a claim in the employment tribunal 

If the Pre-Claim Conciliation process does not result in a deal for you, the next stage would be to consider whether you still wanted to issue an Employment Tribunal claim.

To do that, we would need to obtain an Early Conciliation Certificate from ACAS.

Before we issue a claim for you, we would want to discuss all relevant issues with you, including:

• The strengths and weaknesses of your position and your former employer's position;
• The impact of issuing a claim on your career;
• Any witnesses we would need to speak to, and any further documents we would need to see;
• The likely costs of dealing with each stage of the claim process; and
• How you will be paying for each stage of the process, including whether you have legal expenses insurance which would cover our fees.

Once you have decided that you want to issue a claim, we would prepare the paperwork for you, to check and approve.

That paperwork would include:

• A claim form - often called an "ET 1"; and
• A Particulars of Claim document, which sets out the details of your case.

Once you had approved that paperwork, we would lodge it at the Employment Tribunal, electronically.

The typical range of costs for this stage is:  £1,200 to £7,200 including VAT, depending on:

• How complicated the legal issues are;
• The amount of paperwork relevant to your case; and
• The number of potential witnesses we would need to speak to.

Stage 4: The employer's response and the start of the case timetable 

The next stage in the process is that your former employer will lodge their response documents in the Employment Tribunal.

Those documents will be the formal Response form, called an ET3, and Grounds of Resistance document, which sets out their case in more detail.

The Employment Tribunal will send those documents to us.

At the same time, the Tribunal will be likely to tell us when and where the case will be heard, and will also set out a timetable for the steps we and your former employer (now called "the Respondent") will have to take before that final hearing.

At that stage, we will want to review the Respondent's response papers with you, and discuss with you whether those papers change our view about the strengths and weaknesses of the case.

The typical range of costs for this stage is:  £600 to £3,600 including VAT, depending on:

• How complicated the legal issues are; and
• The length and complexity of the Respondent's case papers.

NB:  Your former employer has 28 days from receipt of your papers from the Tribunal to lodge its response.  If it does not do so, we can apply for a "default judgment" for you.

Stage 5: Dealing with the case timetable 

As the "Claimant", the steps you will need to take with us during the case timetable will include:

• The preparation of a Schedule of Loss, which is a document setting out the value of your claim;
• The disclosure process, under which both the Claimant and the Respondent prepare lists of all documents they have which are relevant to the issues in the case, and provide copies of those documents to each other;
• The agreement and preparation of a Hearing Bundle, which will contain all of the papers which the Employment Tribunal will see at the final hearing; and
• The preparation of Witness Statements, setting out the evidence which your witnesses will give at the final hearing.

The typical range of costs for the Tribunal timetable is  £2,400 to £12,000 including VAT, depending on a number of factors, including:

• How complicated the legal issues are;
• The volume of paperwork;
• The number of witnesses you need to call, and the length of their statements;
• The Respondent's approach to the agreement of the contents of the Bundle.

Within the Case Timetable phase either you or the Respondent may ask the Tribunal to decide various issues during this process, in which case the Tribunal may ask you and the Respondent to take part in a hearing, at which those issues will be resolved by the Tribunal.

These hearings can take place in person, or by telephone, depending on the Tribunal and the types of issue to be considered.

We would generally represent you at the hearing, or we may advise you that we should instruct a specialist Barrister to represent you.  This will depend on the type of hearing, and whether it is to be by telephone or at the Tribunal itself.

The typical range of costs for dealing with such a hearing is  £600 to £6,600 including VAT, depending on a number of factors, including:

• How complicated the legal issues are;
• Whether it is to be by telephone or at the Tribunal itself;
• The length of the hearing;
• The volume of any paperwork;
• Whether or not we will need witnesses at the hearing, and/or a bundle of documents; and
• Whether or not we instruct a Barrister to do the hearing for us.  A Barrister's Fee for a hearing on a simple issue is generally in the range of £900 - £3,000 including VAT.

Stage 6: The final hearing 

As the date of the final hearing approaches, we will instruct a Barrister to represent you at the hearing, and will agree the Barrister's fees for the hearing with their Clerk.

The Barrister's fee will depend on:

• The length of the hearing;
• The complexity of the issues;
• The size of the Bundle;
• The seniority and experience of the Barrister.

We have an excellent relationship with several experienced Barristers, which means we can negotiate best value fees with the best Barristers for your case.

By way of indication, the fee of a Barrister for representing a Claimant at a one-day Hearing would be between £900 - £2,400 including VAT, depending on the complexity of the issues and the size of the Bundle.

We may decide with you that it would be best to have a meeting with the Barrister before the hearing.  This could be in person or by telephone.  Whether or not we do this depends on the complexity of the case, or whether there are any issues which the Barrister wants to discuss.

Our fee for attending such a conference would be in the range of £600 - £3,600 including VAT, depending on the complexity of the issues.

You should also budget for the cost of dealing with any issues which arise in the weeks leading up to the hearing, such as the appearance of new documents, and any issues with the witnesses or the Tribunal administration system.  Such work could cost in the region of £600 - £2,400 including VAT.

We will also discuss with you whether you would like us to come to the hearing as well as the Barrister.  Typically our charges for attending with the Barrister will be £900 - £1,800 including VAT per day, together with the cost of any overnight accommodation.

How long will my matter take?

The time 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 four to eight weeks. If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, your case is liable to take 26 - 52 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. Hearing dates are determined by the Employment Tribunal and are out of our control.