Transparency notice

Price and other information for wrongful dismissal and unfair dismissal claims (only)

Please click on the below links to read specific sections of our transparency notice.

Employment tribunal advice and representation general
Employment tribunal advice and representation in wrongful dismissal and /or unfair dismissal claims
Our experience and qualifications
Price and timing information
Detailed price, action and timings of claim stages
Regulatory and complaint information
Case studies
Our range of legal services

Employment Tribunal Advice and Representation General

We offer services in a wide range of employment disputes. Some employment claims must be brought in the Employment Tribunal whilst others are dealt with through the courts.

We provide services in respect of all claims in the Employment Tribunal including claims that involve issues such as discrimination, whistleblowing, monetary sums such as wages and national minimum wage disputes.

We also provide advice and representation on dismissal claims and their defence in the Employment Tribunal.

Employment Tribunal Advice and Representation in wrongful dismissal and /or unfair dismissal claims

We are required by professional regulation to publicise the basis of our services on two specific types of dismissal claim or defence of those claims which are brought in the Employment Tribunal. These are:

wrongful dismissal – which is a claim by an employee that their employment contract has been ended in breach of its termination provisions; and
unfair dismissal – which is a claim by an employee for either reinstatement, reengagement or compensation following their dismissal.

We recommend early legal consultation if a workplace dispute or grievance arises which may result in a dismissal.

Wrongful dismissal or unfair dismissal claims and their defence involve several work stages.

The information concerning our experience and our fee charging basis for bringing wrongful dismissal or unfair dismissal claims or their defence which we and all lawyers offering this service have to provide is:

Our experience and qualifications

Employment Tribunal and Disputes Lawyers

All claims will be led and delivered by one of these employment solicitors holding current certification from the Solicitors Regulation Authority to practise as a solicitor. Our (non-partner) employment solicitors are supervised by an employment legal director who is also a solicitor.

Employment Director (legal director status) Charlie Barnes (based South/South East/Southampton/Reading) has over 10 years' national and regional law firm experience in employment legal disputes defence for employers and in bringing employment claims for high net worth and board level executives. Charlie is a member of the Law Society and of the Employment Lawyers Association.

Our solicitors may be supported in this work by (supervised) Paralegal support personnel who are also professional HR Consultants of 5-10+ years’ experience and Members of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development.

Assistance on cases may be provided by a highly experienced legal secretarial team.

Price and timing information

Area of Practice: Wrongful dismissal/unfair dismissal claims stages and our fees

Our fees. Please be aware that the prices shown are estimates for a standard case. The standard case prices are a good indication of price based on our experience of previous cases. These are not fixed fees but estimates based on standard cases with the features described. There is a reasonable chance that the average case price for a standard case will not be the actual price due to complexity factors (see later). A case-specific estimate can be obtained by contacting us. VAT is currently charged at 20%.

Timings for stages of a claim. This is affected by the pace you dictate and the timing the ACAS officer and the Employment Tribunal service specify. We aim to promptly deal with your instructions, keep you informed when a step in the case occurs and always notify you of deadlines set by the Employment Tribunal rules or their orders.

The Employment Tribunal aims to conclude cases within 6 months of their issue date. However, the resourcing of the Employment Tribunal system currently can make that an aim rather than the reality. Also, there are times where adjustments to timing are made to support a participant (although not usually to accommodate a lawyer for one of the parties).

The timescales below for each stage are very much guidance only and are based on our experience of the standard directions given by the Employment Tribunal. The specific timeline set in your case is the one that will apply subject to any variation permitted by the Employment Tribunal.

Our pricing calculations are based on hourly rates but the following pricing information refers to amounts rather than hours.

Detailed price, action and timings of claim stages

Stage 1 Pre-claim

Action	Timing
Taking initial information about your issue, reading the written material you provide to us, and providing you with our advice on success prospects (called “merits”) and on claim recovery amounts (called “compensation”) and understanding from you your requirements and aim in the claim.	Agreed with you at our initial meeting
Pre-claim information collection and pre-claim conciliation via ACAS Notification/establishing basis of notified claim and making a settlement offer and if accepted agreeing binding settlement through ACAS agreement (not by settlement agreement)	Timing of conciliation period - 6 weeks in length - this is fixed by law

Stage 1 Typical Case Price: £2,500 – £3,500 plus VAT dependent on factual and/or legal complexity – e.g. an issue which has been running for months with many interactions between employer and employee will usually require more work than a one off issue which results in a dismissal.

Stage 2 The Claim

If the case is not resolved at Stage 1, it will become a Stage 2 Claim.

List of actions and timings in Stage 2 Claims and the defence of Stage 2 Claims is as follows

Action	Timing
Preparation and issue of the claim at the Tribunal office / preparation and filing of defence to the claim at the Tribunal office	Timing of claim preparation to be as agreed with you subject to ACAS pre claim conciliation and to the time limit for the claim which is usually 1 month from the issue of the Early Conciliation certificate by ACAS Timing of defence response preparation to be as required by the Employment Tribunal rules- usually 4 weeks deadline
Compliance with Employment Tribunal standard directions Timings as directed by the Employment Tribunal	Compliance with Employment Tribunal standard directions Timings as directed by the Employment Tribunal
Schedule of loss preparation for the claimant employee or receipt and preparation of counter schedule of loss for the respondent employer	Usually 2- 4 weeks after receipt of standard directions given by the Employment Tribunal Usually 2-4 weeks after service of Schedule of loss
Documents list preparation and exchange of copies with the other party Timing usually specified by the Employment Tribunal to be done by a stated date which either follows on from the previous stage of preparation or is a period counted in days before the trial hearing	Timing usually specified by the Employment Tribunal to be done by a stated date which either follows on from the previous stage of preparation or is a period counted in days before the trial hearing
Trial bundle preparation	Timing usually specified by the Employment Tribunal to be done by a stated date which either follows on from the previous stage of preparation or is a period counted in days before the trial hearing
Witness statement(s) preparation, exchange of statement(s) with the other party and review of statements served by the other party	Usually specified by the Employment Tribunal to be done by a stated date which either follows on from the previous stage of preparation or is a period counted in days before the trial hearing
Trial representation for you	On date fixed by the Employment Tribunal usually around 6 months from case issue

Case size fee estimates 1 and 2 - Unfair dismissal/wrongful dismissal cases only

	1 day trial Unfair dismissal/wrongful dismissal cases only	2 day trial Unfair dismissal/wrongful dismissal cases only
Typical range of costs	£12,000 plus VAT to £14,500 plus VAT	£14,500 plus VAT to £17,500 plus VAT
Plus	Copying charges at 20p per sheet (duplex), Travel costs to hearings or to meet with you or witnesses where necessary, Overnight accommodation if needed due to travel distance for hearing or to meet you or witnesses Plus amounts paid on your behalf	Copying charges at 20p per sheet (duplex), Travel costs to hearings or to meet with you or witnesses where necessary, Overnight accommodation if needed due to travel distance for hearing or to meet you or witnesses Plus amounts paid on your behalf
Plus Junior Barrister's fee	£2,000 - £3,500 plus VAT This includes preparation for and attending as you advocate at the hearing.	£3,500 - £5,500 plus VAT This includes preparation for and attending as you advocate at the hearing.
Tribunal fees if they are reintroduced	Not currently applicable	Not currently applicable

Please note that barristers will not routinely be instructed for trial hearings outside London.
In London barristers will be instructed for trial hearings for cost effectiveness and expediency.

Assumptions	We assume in this pricing for case size fee estimate 1. Unfair dismissal/wrongful dismissal cases only that the following are correct:	We assume in this pricing case size fee estimate 2. Unfair dismissal/wrongful dismissal cases only that the following are correct:
Assumptions	there is only one claimant there is only one respondent the only claims are wrongful dismissal and / or unfair dismissal only the issue of wrongful and/or unfair dismissal arises in the claim and there is no underlying issue as to discrimination, transfer of a business (TUPE), whistleblowing detriment / dismissal* or unpaid wages claim combined with the claim there is no preliminary hearing there is no hearing other than the trial hearing there is no “automatic” unfair dismissal claim element the claimant is the only witness for the employee and there are no more than two witnesses for the Respondent employer the disclosure material between the parties together is in total no more than 200 duplex A4 sheets the trial bundle material in total is no more than 200 duplex A4 sheets the correspondence with the Tribunal and the other party is only to file and serve documents the correspondence with you is to notify you of served documents and orders advice is provided on major case developments one settlement /conciliation discussion via ACAS is conducted but no prolonged settlement dialogue is undertaken there is no appeal none of the added complexity factors set out below applies	there is only one claimant there is only one respondent the only claims are wrongful dismissal and / or unfair dismissal only the issue of wrongful and/or unfair dismissal arises in the claim and there is no underlying issue as to discrimination, transfer of a business (TUPE), whistleblowing detriment / dismissal* or unpaid wages claim combined with the claim there is no preliminary hearing there is no hearing other than the trial hearing there is no “automatic” unfair dismissal claim element the claimant is the only witness for the employee and there are no more than three witnesses for the Respondent employer the disclosure material between the parties together is in total no more than 400 duplex A4 sheets the trial bundle material in total is no more than 400 duplex A4 sheets the correspondence with the Tribunal and the other party is only to file and serve documents the correspondence with you is to notify you of served documents and orders advice is provided on major case developments one settlement /conciliation discussion via ACAS is conducted but no prolonged settlement dialogue is undertaken there is no appeal none of the added complexity factors set out below applies

Please note that in providing typical or average case price ranges we do not anticipate any case with the above components will have a hearing length of more than two days. If in unexpected circumstances that is exceeded, we will provide fee estimation guidance at that point.
* Where there are whistleblowing allegations as a part of the unfair dismissal claim, the case would fall outside the standard case. A tailored price range would need to be provided. This will depend in part on the number of allegations of breach of regulation and the extent of the challenge to the connection between those protected disclosures and the dismissal.

Added complexity factors which will add cost to the normal or typical range cost estimates and the fees for which are not included in either normal or typical range Case size fee estimate 1 or normal range Case size fee estimate 2 are as follows:

additional parties;
additional claims;
a preliminary hearing;
delays or inefficiency by tribunal or other party;
new claims, new aspects or changes (amendments) to the claim or response to the claim;
applications made before the trial hearing;
applications for costs orders;
any appeal(s);
instruction of a Barrister (save in London);
change of a Barrister due to competing court commitments (for London based claims);
new material or new witnesses becoming available;
detailed settlement negotiations, settlement agreement, direct, via ACAS, via legal advisors, via mediation;
further information requests made or received;
correspondence other than to file and serve tribunal documents and notify you this is done;
additional documents in disclosure ;
additional documents in trial bundle;
additional witnesses;
postponement of hearings or dates for directions actions being changed;
strategic advice to you or prospects of success advice to you after pre-claim advice stage;
separate liability and compensation hearings; and
trials with length of more than 2 days.

Regulatory and complaint information

Our complaints procedure is as follows:

We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided, then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.

In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage. If you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure here. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.

You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint; and
no more than six years from the date of act/omission; or
no more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them.

Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

Case Studies

All employment issues are confidential and so we have chosen not to use details of our clients’ cases to promote our services.

However please feel free to ask us about our experience of similar issues to those you face. We can be confident that we shall have dealt with them successfully in the past but we appreciate you need to satisfy yourself about this.