Unfair Dismissal.

When you’ve worked for an employer for two or more years, you have several legal rights. These rights mean that you’re not legally allowed to be dismissed from your job without a fair reason. Fair reasons include:

• Capability. Dismissal is fair if your health is not up to the demands of the role. For example, if you’re a construction worker who’s physically unable to carry out the job requirements.
• Conduct. Dismissal is fair if there has been poor conduct. For example, if an employee is consistently late or aggressive towards other staff members.
• Redundancy. Dismissal is fair if the job no longer exists and you’ve been selected for redundancy through a fair selection process.
• Breach of statutory duty. An example of this form of fair dismissal is someone whose job relies on driving being disqualified from driving.
• Some other substantial reason ‘SOSR’: Other substantial reasons can include clashing with important colleagues.

Some of the most common examples of unfair dismissal include an employee being dismissed for one of the following reasons:

• Whistleblowing. This is where an employee exposes wrongdoing in the workplace. A common example of this may be an employee reporting a company’s criminal activity.
• Defending rights. An employee can’t be legally dismissed for standing up for one of their rights. An example may be an employee standing up for their right to receive the national minimum wage.
• Maternity leave. Dismissing an employee for needing to take maternity leave is another example of unfair dismissal as women are legally entitled to maternity leave.

If you’re facing a form of unfair dismissal, please contact one of our employment law solicitors on 020 3007 5500 and we can help you get the justice you deserve.

To make a claim for unfair dismissal, you will firstly need to arrange an untimed initial consultation. Our initial consultation guarantees the following:

• Unlimited time to discuss your unfair dismissal claim and ask any questions you may have.
• An overview of your legal standpoint and available options.
• Upfront time and fee estimate for your unfair dismissal claim.

For more information on making an unfair dismissal claim, please contact our solicitors on 020 3007 5500.

The law around making an unfair dismissal claim is very strict. If you’re wanting to claim for unfair dismissal, you will need to act quickly as you only have three months from the date of dismissal to make the claim to the employment tribunal.

The cost for an unfair dismissal claim is entirely dependent on the evidence at hand and how far your employer is willing to contest the matter. Therefore, we always ask that you come in for an untimed initial consultation to assess the case.

During your consultation, you’ll receive:

• Unlimited time to sit down with our employment solicitor and go through the details of your case and ask any questions you may have
• An outline of where you stand from a legal perspective and the options available to you
• A cost and time estimate for your case

After the initial consultation, you will need to instruct our employment solicitor to act on your behalf. The cost of this is at least £300 plus VAT an hour. For this hourly rate, an employment solicitor will construct your case and provide representation in the following courts:

• Employment Tribunal
• County Court
• The High Court

A simple unfair/wrongful dismissal case that settles before needing to submit a claim to the Employment Tribunal hearing will cost in the region of £2,500 to £5,000 plus VAT. This is based on the approximate 8 to 16 hours of work it will take to settle your claim with your employer. Costs can increase with complexity and how long the case goes on for. If your case proceeds to the Employment Tribunal, you can expect to pay over £15,000 plus VAT. We don’t offer fixed fees for unfair dismissal.

There may be additional fees payable, such as barrister fees and administration fees to create bundles and other paperwork. Barrister fees will vary based on the experience level of the chosen barrister.

The general rule is that the Employment Tribunal is a cost-neutral environment, so neither party is rarely made responsible for the other side’s costs. However, there are exceptions to this general rule.

Our solicitors charge £295 to £550 per hour, plus VAT depending on the seniority of who is working on your employment matter. Our average costs represent the work involved across the period it usually takes to either settle your case out of court or proceed to a full hearing.

The stages below are indicative of the work involved in bringing an unfair dismissal claim to court. Depending on when your matter settles, not all stages may be applicable.

• Taking your initial instructions, reviewing the papers and advising you on merits and likely compensation (this is likely to be revisited throughout the matter and subject to change)
• Entering into early conciliation where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached
• Preparing to submit your claim or your response to a claim
• Reviewing and advising on a claim or response from the other party
• Exploring settlement and attempting to negotiate a 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 on 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 on a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list
• Preparation and attendance at Final Hearing, including instructions to Counsel

No two unfair dismissal cases are the same, and there are many factors that affect how much your case will cost.

Cost Variables include:

• Whether the claim includes elements of discrimination and/or victimisation. This includes issues around whether the claimant has a disability and whether this is disputed by the defendant
• Whether whistleblowing is, or could have been the cause for dismissal
• Whether or not an application for costs is going to be made
• If there are complexities arising from Transfers of Undertakings (TUPE)
• The number of witnesses and documents involved in a case
• The involvement of any experts to verify evidence or a person’s condition

If the case proceeds to a hearing, an additional daily fee of £1,200 to £2,400 plus VAT will be applied for the solicitor in attendance, depending on the seniority of the solicitor.

There are currently no mandatory disbursements payable for Employment Tribunal cases. However, there may be additional fees incurred for travel and expert witnesses. If any additional disbursements are required, we will always consult with you first unless there are practical reasons why this is not possible.

This depends on at which stage your case is resolved. For matters that are settled out of court during pre-claim conciliation, your case can take a period of 4-8 weeks.

If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, this will depend on the Employment Tribunal’s availability. Typically, HMCTS aims to list a preliminary case management hearing date within 26 weeks from when the claim commenced. The final hearing date is generally set at the preliminary case management hearing. The court is currently scheduling final hearings around 18 months after the preliminary case management hearing.