Employment Tribunal Costs

In keeping with the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s rules on costs transparency, this page sets out our costs for bringing and defending wrongful and unfair dismissal claims in the Employment Tribunal. The costs set out below are an estimate.

These include:

• longer term agreements where employers receive HR and Employment law advice from us throughout the life of the agreement and do not pay any additional legal costs when faced with a tribunal where our advice on best practice has been followed
• longer term fixed fee arrangements for larger employers with regular employment tribunal claims.
• Insurance cover (see Other Funding Options below)

Wrongful Dismissal Claim (single claim):
£7,000 – £11,500 plus VAT

Unfair Dismissal Claims:

Simple cases: £15,000 – £20,000 plus VAT
Medium complexity cases: £16,000 – £26,000 plus VAT
Complex cases: £22,000 – £35,000 plus VAT

All fees and rates quoted on this page are before VAT charged at the applicable rate, currently 20%.

It would not normally be necessary to undertake other work or incur other costs other than those described above. However, we would be very happy to provide you with a more tailored quote for all stages of your particular case once we know about your specific circumstances.

Factors influencing the cost of your case

• Multiple or additional complex claims, such as discrimination and whistleblowing
• Complex preliminary issues e.g. establishing if you or the other party has a disability
• Making or defending applications to amend claims or to provide further information about an existing claim
• Defending claims that are brought by litigants in person
• Making or defending a costs application
• The number of witnesses
• The volume of documents
• If it is an automatic unfair dismissal claim

Key stages included in the above prices

• Taking your initial instructions
• Reviewing documents
• Entering into pre-claim conciliation
• Agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list
• Advising you on liability (your chances of winning) and quantum (any likely compensation you may receive or have to pay out
• Preparing, drafting and submitting the ET1 (claim form) outlining your case and the nature of the dispute or ET3 (response form) when a claim has been made against you
• Reviewing and advising on the claim or response from the other party
• Preparing and attending a preliminary hearing setting out the agenda for the management of the case
• Preparing and finalising or considering a schedule of loss
• Preparing, finalising and agreeing a bundle of documents
• Taking witness statements, drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses
• Preparing, finalising and exchanging or considering a bundle of documents with the other side
• Attendance, by us, at the final tribunal hearing

The stages set out above are an indication of range of services we offer and can be adapted to suit your individual needs.

Potential Additional Charges

• Substantial applications – if a formal request requires considerable preparation and/or response
• Expenses and disbursements – these can include: travel, accommodation, medical and other expert reports, postage and photocopying
• Advocacy services: This will be an additional cost if we need to instruct Counsel for their opinion and/or for their attendance at the hearing.
• Fees for Counsel tend to start from around £200 plus VAT per hour. Where this is appropriate, we would always discuss charges and options with you in advance.
• Exploring settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process
• Preparing and attending judicial mediation

Disbursements

Disbursements are expenses related to your case payable to us or to third parties. We can handle payment of disbursements on your behalf but sometimes you may be asked to pay them direct. Examples of disbursements are court fees or Counsel’s fees.

How long will my matter take?

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 2-12 weeks. If your claim proceeds to a final hearing, your case is likely to take between 9 months and 2 years to conclude. Much will depend on the waiting time for hearings – i.e. Employment Tribunal availability at the various stages. 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.

Other Funding Options

Businesses and other organisations: You may have insurance to protect you against employment claims. If so, we look forward to working with you to understand your needs. For most businesses, whilst the insurer may have a panel of regular advisors, the terms of your insurance are likely to allow you to instruct a law firm of your own choosing. If you think you have insurance cover, you should discuss with your insurer. We would be happy to talk this through with you.

The costs of acting for you on an insured claim depend upon the terms of coverage of your insurance and the hourly rate the insurance provider agrees to cover for your legal advice. If you are likely to incur any additional costs not covered by the insurance, we would discuss these with you.

Individuals: You should always check whether another body (such as a scheme run by your employer or a trade union) could be responsible for your costs. It is also possible that you hold a legal expenses insurance policy that could cover your legal costs. Sometimes household contents, car or other insurance policies cover legal expenses. We strongly recommend that you carefully check for this as your insurers may contribute towards your costs. If you think you have insurance cover, you should discuss with your insurer.

Whilst the insurer may have a panel of regular advisors, the terms of your insurance are likely to allow you to instruct a law firm of your own choosing. Whilst we generally represent businesses, there are circumstances where we represent individuals or groups of individuals. We would be happy to talk this through with you.

Our Team of Experts

Our team of specialist employment lawyers have significant experience in dealing with employment disputes. Our Head of Employment Law heads up a team of currently 9 lawyers/advisers and has been working in this area for more than 25 years.

Our lawyers have between 1 and 25 years of experience in this area and advise on all aspects of employment law with a proven track record in achieving successful outcomes for our clients.

We always make sure that junior lawyers and members of staff are supported and supervised appropriately so that the quality of advice is not affected, regardless of who is working on your case.

You can find out more information about the team on our website on the team page.