Employment Tribunal.

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 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. 

• 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

Depending on when your matter settles, not all stages may be applicable.

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 are the preliminary case management hearing.