Our Fees

Our pricing for bringing and defending claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal

In accordance with the requirements of the Solicitors Regulatory Authority Transparency Rules.

The relationship between an employer and their employees is becoming increasingly complicated to navigate. While no one sets out to end up in a dispute, unfortunately workplace relationships do sometimes break down. When a workplace dispute results in an Employment Tribunal claim, both sides have certain legal obligations to meet. Doing this and making the right decisions requires expert employment lawyers like us to help you.

We can provide you with clear and practical advice. Our award-winning team of specialist lawyers have significant expertise in acting for claimants and defending Employment Tribunal claims. We will always provide you with a realistic assessment of the claim early on, as well as providing advice and guidance. The costs of bringing or defending a claim can vary, and we have outlined our fees, and the process to help you, below.

 Estimated fees and disbursements

With potential unfair or wrongful dismissal claims our employment lawyers are usually always able to achieve a favourable outcome for our clients, via a settlement or other means before you need to consider Employment Tribunal claims and therefore our fees to achieve that outcome would be lower than set out below.

Where we are managing and advising in relation to claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal to be brought or defended and the dispute results in a full hearing where an Employment Tribunal delivers a judgement, we estimate the following fees for the various elements involved.

• Very basic and limited preliminary advice claim: £500-£2,000 (excluding VAT, charged at 20%)
• Simple claim: £5,000-£15,000 (excluding VAT, charged at 20%)
  Medium complexity claim: £15,000-£30,000 (excluding VAT, charged at 20%)
• High complexity claim: £30,000-£50,000 (excluding VAT, charged at 20%),
  Please note this does not include Employment Tribunal appeal claims.

There are numerous factors that could make a claim more complex, which include:

• If it is necessary to make or defend 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 additional claims or applications, e.g. a  costs application
• Complex preliminary issues such as whether the claimant is disabled (if this is not agreed by the parties)
• The number of witnesses and documents and any related special requirements
• 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
• The way the opponent conducts the litigation e.g. a difficult, vexatious, unreasonable or unusual approach to litigation is adopted
• A high level legal of support is required by our client
• Particularly lengthy proceedings occur
• New evidence arises during litigation which requires action and consideration
• The early instruction of a barrister or “counsel” is necessary or required
• Expert witness evidence is required

We charge our fees at an hourly rate. The fee for our employment lawyers to carry out work on your behalf would be between £200 to £350 (excluding VAT, charged at 20%) per hour depending on their employment law experience. Time spent by paralegals will be charged at £125 (excluding VAT, charged at 20%) per hour. Fees will usually be invoiced on a monthly basis.

Disbursements are additional costs related to the claim payable to third parties, such as court fees. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process. Disbursements will be charged in addition to our fees.

Disbursements include Counsel’s fees which will vary greatly depending on their experience and expertise.  You are likely to incur Counsel’s fees for a full hearing in the region of £1,500 to £15,000 in most scenarios (excluding VAT, charged at 20%) depending on experience of the advocate, for representing you at a Tribunal Hearing.

Key stages

The fees set out above cover all of the work in relation to the following key stages of a claim:

• Taking your initial instructions, reviewing the papers and advising you on the merits and likely compensation (this is likely to be revisited throughout and subject to change)
• Entering into pre-claim conciliation where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached
• Preparing the claim or response
• Reviewing and advising on claim or response from other party
• Exploring settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process
• preparing or considering a schedule of loss
• Preparing for (and attending) a Preliminary Hearing
• Exchanging documents with the other party and agreeing a bundle of documents
• Taking witness statements, drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses
• preparing bundle of documents
• Reviewing and advising on the other party’s witness statements
• agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list
• Preparation and attendance at a full Hearing, including instructions to Counsel

The stages set out above are an indication and if some of stages above are not required, the fees will be less. You may wish to handle the claim yourself and only have our advice in relation to some of the stages. This can be arranged based on your individual needs.

How long will my claim take?

The time that it takes from taking your initial instructions to the final resolution of your claim depends largely on the stage at which your claim concludes. We often reach a favourable outcome for our clients before the ACAS conciliation stage, however if a settlement is reached during ACAS pre-claim conciliation stage then the process usually lasts approximately one month, although a settlement could be reached on day one.

If your claim proceeds to a full Hearing, it is likely to take between 20 weeks to 12 months from the issue of proceedings. This timescale is largely governed by the complexity of the claim, how many claims the Employment Tribunals are dealing with and the availability of Judges. Where the Employment Tribunals are experiencing high levels of claims it can take at least 9 to 12 months to conclude.

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 update you as the claim progresses.

Experience and qualifications of teams/individuals who will carry out the work

Our team of solicitors are experts in employment law and they will provide practical solutions to resolve your employment issues. We have particular expertise in bringing and defending claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal.

We have 11 members of the team, solicitors, a barrister, a paralegal and our trainees, who may work on your claim whose details can be found here . Regardless of who works on your claim, they will be supervised by either Pam Loch, Managing Partner or Joe Milner, Partner.

 

Why choose Loch Law to handle your claim?

OUR PRICING FOR DEBT RECOVERY FOR BUSINESSES

In accordance with the requirements of the Solicitors Regulation Authority Transparency Rules At Loch Law, we work with our clients to implement and manage cash collection processes with the aim to avoid commencing proceedings to recover your business’ revenue. However, despite having processes in place, it is sometimes necessary for proceedings to be commenced to recover debt owed to your business. Our award winning team of solicitors have significant expertise in dispute resolution including recovery of debt. We will always provide you with a realistic assessment of the claim early on, as well as providing advice and guidance. The costs of bringing a claim can vary, and we have outlined our fees, and the process to help you, below.