If you end up in the unfortunate position of being in dispute with one of your staff, you will want to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion quickly and minimise your financial exposure.
We’ll assess your chances of success at the outset, and give you a commercial view on how best to proceed with the claim based on the level of risk you are prepared to take.
Whilst guiding you through the tribunal process, we’ll gain valuable insight into your operations and when we finalise the claim, we may be able to identify areas where we could offer support and training to prevent similar cases from arising in the future.
Before talking about our prices, we thought you might like to understand in a little more detail what is typically involved, how long it might take and how we can help.
This is what we will do for you – key stages
The prices set out below cover all the work involved in the following key stages of an employment tribunal claim:
- Discuss the issues surrounding the claim
- Review the papers and advise you on merits and likely award against the business (this is likely to be revisited throughout the case and subject to change)
- Enter into pre-claim conciliation where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached
- Review and advise you on the claim from the other party
- Prepare your defence
- Explore settlement and negotiate settlement throughout the process
- Prepare for (and attend) a Preliminary Hearing
- Exchange documents with the other party and agreeing on a bundle of documents
- Take witness statements, drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses
- Review and advise you on the other party’s witness statements
- Agree on a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list
- Prepare and attend the Final Heading, including instructions to a Barrister to present your case at the Final Hearing.
The stages set out above are an indication and if some of the stages above are not required, the costs may be reduced.
Our experience
All members of our specialist employment law team have significant experience in advising business through the employment tribunal process. For more information, click here to read some of our employment tribunal case studies. You can view our team profiles by clicking here.
How long will all that take?
The time it takes depends largely on the stage at which the case is resolved. If a settlement is reached during pre-claim conciliation, the case could take a matter of weeks.
If the claim proceeds to a Final Hearing in the Employment Tribunal, the case is likely to take several months. In some cases, because of the pressure on the Tribunal system, even years!
This is just an estimate and we will be able to give you a more accurate timescale once we have more information, and as the case progresses.
How much will it cost?
As outlined above, these pricing examples assume the case goes all the way to a Final Hearing at the Employment Tribunal.
| Estimated cost | VAT @ 20% | Total cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple case | £8,000 – £12,500 | £1,600 – £2,500 | £9,600 – £15,000 |
| Medium complex case | £12,500 – £17,500 | £2,500 – £3,500 | £15,000 – £21,000 |
| Highly complex case | £17,500 – £40,000 | £3,500 – £8,000 | £21,000 – £48,000 |
What can make a case more complex?
- If we need 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 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 volume of documents
- Allegations of discrimination which are linked to the dismissal
- If the claim is listed for more than three days in Tribunal
Additional costs
| Estimated cost | VAT @ 20% | Total cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price for us attending the tribunal hearing (per day)* | £2,000 | £400 | £2,400 |
* The length of the Hearing and whether this is necessary will depend on the complexity of your case.
VAT – Please note that the addition of vat to our charges is governed by very complex statutory provisions and extra-statutory guidance. Read more here.
Other third party costs
In addition to the fees you will pay us, you will need to pay fees and charges to others which we will make on your behalf, but will usually ask for money on account to cover them. These are often referred to as ‘disbursements’.
Barristers’ fees estimated between £1,000 to £5,000 per day (depending on the experience of the advocate) for attending a Tribunal Hearing (including preparation).
What happens next?
If you receive an employment tribunal claim and would like a no-obligation chat about how we can help, please contact a member of our employment team directly or complete the contact form and a member of our team will be in touch.