Simple Cases
Simple cases are where the issues to be determined are not complex, where there are a limited number of witnesses and cases which are not document and evidence heavy. For example, it may include claims for breach of contract, unlawful deduction of wages cases, holiday pay disputes, wrongful dismissal claims or claims in relation to statutory rights. It may also include some straightforward unfair dismissal claims (for example claims that are well evidenced so issues to be determined by the tribunal would not be vast). These cases would normally be listed for one or two days.
In addition to our fees you would also most likely incur disbursements.
Medium Complexity Cases
Medium complexity cases are where the issues to be determined require more detailed assessment. This would include more complicated unfair dismissal claims, automatic unfair dismissal cases, cases of holiday pay where employment status needs to be determined and discrimination/whistleblowing detriment cases. Medium complexity cases would normally be listed for 3 – 5 days, there would be some witnesses and a more substantial number of documents and evidence to prepare and to consider.
In addition to our fees you would also most likely incur disbursements.
Complex Cases
Higher complexity cases include cases that include unfair dismissal claims linked to discrimination, whistleblowing detriment and cases requiring a lot of witnesses and review of a large bundle of documents. These cases would normally be listed for more than 5 days.
In addition to our fees you would also most likely incur disbursements.
Disbursements
Whilst most cases settle before proceeding to the final hearing, it is important that you are aware of additional costs that may be incurred if it does not. In addition to our costs, you may also need to pay disbursements. Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties for example to Barrister and/or Expert. You no longer need to pay a fee to issue an employment tribunal claim.
Barristers’ fees are the most likely disbursements for this type of matter. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process. We do not mark up the fees. The amount of the barrister’s fees will also depend on the complexity of the case and the seniority of the barrister and what they are instructed to do.
Although any preliminary matters would mostly be dealt with by a solicitor, we may need to instruct a Barrister if there any time limit or employment status issues or if you wish to make an application to amend your claim. We may also need to instruct a Barrister to defend any strike out/deposit order applications made by the employer or if there is a dispute about your disability status (if applicable).
Those preliminary matters would normally cost between £1,000 – £3,500 (plus VAT) to determine.
If your matter goes all the way to the full hearing, you will normally expect to pay between £2,500 – £7,500 plus VAT as brief fee. Brief fee is for the preparation for the hearing and the first day of the hearing. You would also need to pay a refresher fee (attendance for each additional day at the hearing). These costs are usually between £750 – £3,000 plus VAT per day (depending on the experience and seniority of the barrister). For example, if your matter is listed for 3 days you would be charged a brief fee, plus 2 day refresher fee.
We would give you an estimate of this before instructing them on your behalf.
What Can Influence the Costs
Factors that could make your claim more complex and/or add cost include:
- The extent to which the employer defends proceedings
- The number of issues or events that the tribunal need to consider in order to reach a decision
- Preliminary issues that may need to be decided, for example whether the claim has been brought within time limits or where employment status must be determined;
- Whether we need to make an application to amend your claim and whether that application is defended;
- Making or defending an application for costs, strike out order, deposit order or where an application for specific disclosure needs to be made or defended;
- The level of disclosure and evidence required, including the volume of documents and the number of witnesses
- Whether it is necessary to instruct an expert
- Where the claim is not straightforward and involves an automatically unfair reason e.g. whistleblowing or TUPE or allegations of discrimination linked to the dismissal.
- The number of days which are allocated for the tribunal hearing
- Needing to make any applications for an order for witness appearance at the Tribunal
- The extent to which enforcement is necessary.
It is difficult to give a time estimate for the matter. 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. A matter can take a few weeks if settlement is reached during pre-claim conciliation. If the claim proceeds to a final hearing, it could take up to a year or more. The timescales will also depend on, among other things, the complexity of the matter, whether there are any preliminary issues to be resolved, how many days the hearing is listed for, how quickly the particular Tribunal lists the case for a hearing, and on how quickly the other side responds to requests for information.
What Estimate Includes
- Taking your initial instructions, reviewing papers and advising you on the merits of the case (this is likely to be revisited throughout the matter and subject to change);
- Engaging ACAS and obtaining ACAS Conciliation Certificate (if you have not done so already);
- Preparing your claim and issuing your claim at the Employment Tribunal;
- Reviewing the employer’s defence and advising you on its merits;
- Exploring settlement negotiations throughout the process either via ACAS or directly with your employer;
- Considering whether your employer should be put on the warning of costs and responding to any warning of costs received from the employer;
- Preparation for defending any strike out order/deposit order applications;
- Preparing your schedule of loss;
- Writing your disability impact statement (if applicable);
- Preparing for and attending any closed preliminary hearing;
- Preparing for any open preliminary hearing;
- Exchanging documents with the party and agreeing the bundle of documents;
- Taking witness statements and agreeing their content with witnesses;
- Reviewing and advising on the other party’s witness statements;
- Agreeing a list of issues, chronology and/or cast list;
- Preparation for the Final Hearing including preparing instructions to the barrister;
- Reviewing tribunal decision on liability and any consequences e.g. preparation for remedies hearing and enforcement action where necessary or whether there is scope for an appeal where appropriate.
- Drafting and/or reviewing COT3 and/or any settlement agreement wording.
Time Fee Basis
If you opt for this type of fee arrangement, you will be charged for our services at an hourly rate. Hourly rate will vary depending on the experience of a solicitor. If a fee earner is assisted by a trainee or a paralegal, their hourly rate will be £150.00 per hour.
Our hourly rate charges are based on actual time spent working on your file. Time spent on your file will include meetings with you and others, reading, considering, preparing and working on papers, negotiation, correspondence, attending court, instructing barristers, preparation of detailed cost calculations, making and receiving telephone calls and travelling when necessary.
Routine letters/emails received, or routine letters/emails sent and making or receiving routine telephone calls are charged in units of 6 minutes. Longer letters and telephone calls will be charged according to the time taken.
Under the normal time basis, you pay your fees whether we are able to negotiate settlement for you or not. As above if your employer is not willing to engage with us, your fees will be limited, and we can then explore whether any of the no win no fee arrangements are better suited. If your employer settles, the time fee-based arrangement most of the time works out as the least expensive way to fund your matter this is because under the no win no fee arrangement your fees can work out substantially higher. If you think your employer will settle, then I would recommend this fee arrangement.
Fixed Fee Basis
If we have agreed to represent you on a fixed fee basis, we will charge you only an agreed amount. It is important to note that your fee will be limited to our instructions, and therefore if we need to carry out any work that is outside of our fixed fee arrangement such fees will be charged on time fee basis, unless another fixed fee arrangement is agreed upon.
DBA – No Win No Fee
If your matter is suitable for a no win no fee agreement, you may be able to fund it under a Damages Based Agreement (DBA). DBA is a type of a no win no fee agreement. Under the DBA you would need to pay a flat fee (usually 20-35% ) of whatever you get from your employer.
For illustration purposes, say your employer agrees or is ordered to pay you £10,000. If your matter is funded under the DBA at 35%, our fee will be £3,500. If your employer agrees or is ordered to pay you £20,000, our fee will be £7,000 so on. This is irrespective of how much time we spend working on your file. In addition to these costs, you will be liable to pay disbursements.
If we are unable to obtain settlement or if you do not win your case, you will not be liable for the payment as this is the whole purpose of a DBA. However, you will still be liable for disbursements spent on your behalf.
This fee arrangement is more suitable if the employer is unlikely to settle early in the proceedings and is likely to proceed all the way to the final merits hearing and where the compensation is likely to be lower. This is because if we approach your employer and you negotiate a substantial settlement, your fees will be much higher than what you would have to pay under a time fee basis. To give you an illustration, if your employer offers you £20,000 in settlement after we have spent 10 hours of work on your file, your fee will be £7000 as where it would have otherwise been £3000. On the other hand, if you have received a smaller settlement but we had to spend a considerable amount of time negotiating that settlement for you, your fees would be capped at the 35% no matter how much time we have spent working on your case. Clients favour this approach for assurance that they will walk away with at least 65% or more of their damages.
CFA – No Win No Fee
If your matter is suitable for a no win no fee agreement, you may be able to fund it under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).
Under a CFA, we would charge you for the time spent working on your file at our usual hourly rates as above. If we are unable to obtain settlement or if you do not win your case, you will not need to pay our fees as this is the whole purpose of a CFA. However, you will still be liable for disbursements spent on your behalf.
If we do win your case and/or are able to negotiate a settlement, in addition to our usual fees you will also need to pay a Success Fee which is usually set between 25% – 100% of the total amount of fees.
For illustration purposes, say we have spent 10 hours working on your file, at an hourly rate of £300 per hour and your success fee is set at 50%. Under our normal hourly rate arrangement, our fees would come to £3,000. However, if your matter is funded under a CFA, in addition to the £3000 , you would need to pay a success fee of £1500 (which is 50% of the illustrative £3000).
This fee arrangement is more suitable if the employer is likely to settle early in the proceedings and is not likely to proceed all the way to the final merits hearing and in situations where the compensation is likely to be higher. Clients favour this arrangement for fairness. If we have spent considerable time working on your case, our fees will reflect this. If we have spent little time working on your case, they will also reflect that.
It is important to bear in mind that if you choose this arrangement, your fees may exceed your damages. If your matter goes all the way to the hearing, and say you are awarded £20,000, but if your fees are £15,000 plus the success fee of £7500 (which is 50% of £15,000), your fees would be higher than your damages and you would be required to pay the difference.
Insurance
In some privately funded cases, you may already have a Before the Event (BTE) legal expense insurance policy. You may have such cover with any of your insurance policies. We therefore recommend that you contact your insurance providers to check. You should look out for Legal Expenses cover. It could be your home, car, public liability, professional indemnity insurance etc.
If you have a BTE insurance, we will write to the provider to act under the policy. Their fees will normally be very limited and will usually range between £90 – £150 her hour.
In some circumstances, the insurers may insist on your case being dealt with by solicitors from their panel who they appoint on your behalf. It is important to remember that you have freedom of choice, and you are able to appoint a solicitor of your choice to ensure that you have the best independent expert legal advice.
If their contribution is limited and our fees are higher, you can fund the difference by way of a CFA, DBA or Time Fee Basis.
Legal Aid
You may be able to obtain Legal Aid for your employment case. We are not registered with the legal aid agency and therefore would not be able to assist you on legal aid basis.
What is the best option?
Unfortunately, we cannot advise you on which option would be better for you. However, we are able to explore and discuss all the options, including the likelihood of your employer settling.
From our experience, we find that starting negotiating an exit or arrangement works best on time fee basis arrangement.
This is because if we approach your employer and they are not interested in settling, we can always re-assess whether you want to transfer onto one of the no win no fee arrangements for litigation especially if you find that the matter is proceeding to litigation.
If they do settle early in the proceedings, time fee arrangement will certainly be less expensive than the CFA, and most likely be less expensive than the DBA. If your employer offers very little and you decide to accept this, DBA may work out less expensive, but it is difficult to predict this.
If you would like the peace of mind that the no win no fee arrangement provides, then CFA would be more suited for matters that settle quickly, and the settlement is likely to be higher. DBA would be more suited for matters that are likely to last longer and/or you are likely to accept a smaller settlement. As is usual it is difficult to predict what your employer will do but we can discuss this in more detail as this usually depends on the size and experience of your employer.