Our Employment Tribunal Solicitors Promise

Employment tribunals make judgements on employment law disputes in England and Wales. These employment disputes range from:

• Unfair dismissal cases
• Constructive dismissal cases
• Incorrectly applied redundancy procedures
• Employment contract breach
• Equal pay disputes
• Discrimination matters (age, race. gender etc.)
• Failure to follow the correct procedure during a disciplinary or grievance process

Employment tribunals can be daunting and have strict timelines and rules that have to be adhered to if you are to stand any chance of success.

When it comes to a case being brought to the employment tribunal, it’s hard to generalise how long it may take. More straightforward cases, for example those which settle before a hearing, can take between 4-6 months.

The largest variable in how long an employment tribunal matter will take is always securing a court date for the hearing. Currently, it can take around 6 – 12 months to secure a court date or longer. If your case is particularly complex and you need a second hearing, this time will be doubled.

An employment tribunal solicitor will be able to provide you with a more accurate time-frame in an initial consultation, after understanding the details of your specific matter.

If you need to consult an employment tribunal solicitor, contact us on 020 3007 5500.

The bulk of employment tribunal case costs come from preparing documentation, court bundles and arguments. The more complicated a case, the more preparation is required, and therefore the more costly it is.

For example, a serious workplace discrimination matter will normally require gathering several witness statements, ensuring these correspond with the chronology of events, and preparing a court bundle for the judge to review what further evidence they require.

In contrast, a more straightforward tribunal might settle before even reaching the hearing stage, and therefore not require all of this preparation.

An employment tribunal solicitor will be able to provide you with a more accurate cost estimate in an initial consultation after understanding the details of your specific matter.

For a full list of employment costs, please see our section on ‘Employment tribunal: fees and work‘.

When it comes to starting an employment tribunal case, you must make sure you have first told the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) that you intend to make a claim to the tribunal. ACAS conciliation aims to bring together employers and employees to try and resolve their dispute before involving costly legal processes.

Suppose ACAS’ informal solution doesn’t work, you must make a claim to the employment tribunal to start your proceedings.

Many people instuct a solicitor before submitting their claim to ensure their it’s legally correct.

We are currently unable to offer legal aid in any capacity as we lack the necessary legal aid certificate. We also don’t offer pro bono property law work at present.

A simple unfair/wrongful dismissal case that settles before any Employment Tribunal hearing occurs will cost in the region of £1,000 to £2,000 plus VAT. This is based on the approximate 3 to 8 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 Employment Tribunal, you can expect to pay over £10,000 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 upon the experience level of the chosen barrister.

You typically won’t be responsible for paying for the other side’s costs if you lose at an Employment Tribunal.

Depending on who is working on your case, our hourly rates are as follows:

Senior solicitors                    £400 plus VAT per hour
Solicitors                                £275 plus VAT per hour
Trainees and paralegals      £175 plus VAT per hour
Administration                      £150 plus VAT per hour

Charges are made in increments of 1/10 of an hour, or for every 6 minutes spent on your matter, rounded up.

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 of the 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 pre-claim conciliation where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached
• Preparing claim or response
• Reviewing and advising on a claim or response from the 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 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

• The claim includes elements of discrimination
• Whistleblowing is, or could have been the cause for dismissal
• Whether or not an application for costs is going to be made
• Complexities arising from Transfers of Undertakings (TUPE)
• Issues around whether or not the claimant has a disability and whether this is disputed by the defendant
• 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.

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 matter 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 hearing date within 26 weeks from when the claim commenced, but it can take more than one year for a hearing date to be available in exceptional circumstances.