Our fees are charged hourly at £250-£295 plus VAT. We also offer a range of fixed-fee options where this is suitable. Please contact our professional team for more details about fees and costs. We also regularly act for clients who have the benefit of insurance cover.

Employment Tribunals for Employers

Our pricing for defending claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal in the Employment Tribunal is as follows:

  • Simple case: £2,000 to £5,000 (excluding VAT)
  • Average complexity case: £5,000 to £20,000 (excluding VAT)
  • High complexity case: £20,000 to £50,000 (excluding VAT)

Factors that may increase the complexity of a case include:

  • making or defending applications to amend pleadings or to provide further information about an existing claim or response
  • The number of witnesses and volume of documentation
  • Defending claims that are brought by an unrepresented party
  • Dealing with preliminary issues such as whether the claim has been made in time
  • If it is an automatic unfair dismissal claim eg if the employee alleges that they were dismissed for making a protected disclosure or in connection with a TUPE transfer

Please note that claims that include allegations of discrimination or whistleblowing can be very complex and our costs could exceed those set out above.

Key stages

The costs set out above include the work relating to the following stages of a claim:

  • Taking your initial instructions, reviewing the documents and advising you on the merits of your case and likely compensation
  • Entering into ACAS early conciliation, where this is mandatory, to explore whether a settlement can be reached
  • Preparing a response to the claim
  • Exploring and negotiating potential settlement throughout the process
  • Considering a Schedule of Loss and preparing a counter schedule
  • Preparing for and attending any Preliminary Hearing
  • Preparing a list of documents, exchanging documents with the other side and agreeing the Tribunal documents
  • Taking witness statements, drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses
  • Reviewing and advising on the other party’s witness statements
  • Agreeing a list of issues, cast list and chronology where necessary

The stages set out above are an indication of what may be necessary but if some of the stages above are not required, the cost will be reduced. You may wish to handle the claim yourself and only have our advice in relation to some of the stages. This can also be arranged, and appropriate charges agreed, depending on your individual needs.

Hearing

There will be an additional daily charge for attending a Tribunal Hearing of £2,000 to £3,500 (excluding VAT) (depending on the experience of the advocate). Generally, you should allow 1 to 3 days for a Tribunal Hearing depending on the complexity of the case. However, cases are sometimes listed for longer hearings of eg. 10 or 15 days.

Disbursements:
Disbursements are costs related to your case that are payable to third parties, such as barristers or experts. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.

If a barrister is instructed to attend a Tribunal Hearing, we would expect a barrister’s fee for a one day hearing to be between £700 and £3,500 excluding VAT (depending on the barrister’s experience). A barrister’s charges for multi-day hearings would depend on the length of the hearing and the experience of the advocate.

Funding

You may have cover under an insurance policy and we recommend that you check this as it could significantly reduce your costs.
If you are a member of our Employers Protection Scheme the costs of defending employment tribunal claims will be covered subject to any excess payable and the terms of the policy.

How long will my case take?

The time a case takes to conclude will vary according to the stage at which it resolves. Some cases are resolved at an early stage, within a matter of weeks, whilst others proceed to a final hearing. Cases may currently take 12-18 months if they proceed to a final hearing.