Employment Law

Griffin Law is experienced in acting for commercial clients at employment tribunals. Employees are often a company’s most valuable asset, however sometimes things do not quite go to plan. Our employment lawyers are experts at defending claims made by employees, such as wage disputes, discrimination, unfair dismissal, and whistle-blowing. If you are facing any or a number of these disputes, our team of experienced lawyers can help:

• identify the risks and approach to a claim at an early stage;
• assess the legal costs involved in defending the claim;
• establish your prospects of success;
• assess the risk of not succeeding and the costs involved;
• calculate the necessary time and resources from you to defend the claim;
• determine whether a commercial settlement is appropriate or whether (for business or reputational and policy reasons) you should defend the action through to final hearing;
• prepare a robust response to ensure that your business and its reputation are protected;
• advise whether there are any lessons to be learnt from the process, including identifying any potential training requirements or changes to your policies and procedures that might be required.

How much does an Employment Tribunal cost?

Our typical fees for defending claims before the Employment Tribunal on behalf of employers for unfair and/or wrongful dismissal are set out below. These fees are based on cases that proceed to a final hearing and are based on our experience of the average time a matter takes to be dealt with and our hourly rates. If a claim concludes earlier, then the fee will be less (e.g. if an out-of-court settlement is agreed).

There are typically three levels of employment claim depending on the complexity and the fee varies accordingly. We have also set out in more detail how we charge and the factors that will affect what the total fee will be for defending a claim. All fees are exclusive of VAT charged at 20%.

• Simple claim – fees range from £10,000 – £25,000 (excluding VAT)
• Medium claim– fees range from £25,000 – £50,000 (excluding VAT)
• Complex claim – fees range from £50,000 – £100,000 (excluding VAT).

There will be an additional charge for attending a Tribunal Hearing of between £1,200 and £2,500 per day (excluding VAT), depending on the hourly rate of the lawyer involved.

The hourly rates charged by our lawyers are as follows:

• Directors, Consultants & specified Senior Associates: £400 per hour (excluding VAT);
• Specified Senior Associates, Associates and legal executives with over 4 years’ equivalent experience: £350 per hour (excluding VAT);
• Associates, Assistants, legal executives and fee-earners with up to 4 years’ equivalent experience: £250 per hour (excluding VAT);
• Trainee Solicitors, Paralegals & Support Staff: £200 per hour (excluding VAT).

Factors affecting the overall fee

While it is impossible to list all the factors that could affect the overall fee, as each case varies, the most common factors to bear in mind are:

• the conduct of the opponent and/or if the claimant is legally represented their lawyers or trades union representatives;
• how busy the Tribunal might be with other cases (which could mean that it takes longer for a claim to be heard);
• the location of the Tribunal;
• the amount of correspondence and documents for us to review;
• your conduct in working collaboratively with us;
• any preliminary or interim hearings that might be required to determine substantive issues before the final hearing itself;
• postponement of hearings;
• if there is an ongoing disciplinary or grievance appeal process;
• the length of the final hearing itself.

Key stages in the process

The fee ranges set out above will cover all of the work concerning the typical stages of a claim before the Employment Tribunal. These key stages include:

• 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 through ACAS where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached;
• reviewing and advising on the claim;
• preparing your response to the claim;
• exploring settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process;
• preparing for and attending a case management and/or preliminary hearing, if required, to resolve any initial issues in relation to the claim;
• reviewing potentially relevant documents and exchanging documents that need to be disclosed with the claimant;
• reviewing the documents disclosed by the claimant;
• preparing witness statements and reviewing/advising on the witness statements provided by the claimant and any witnesses they have called;
• agreeing and preparing the bundle of documents to be used at the final hearing;
• agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list.
• preparing for and attending the final hearing, including instructions to the barrister who will represent you at that hearing.

These stages are an indication only. If some of the stages above are not required, the fees would be lower than the estimated fees above, conversely, if there are additional stages, the fee will be at the higher end. You could also reduce the fees by handling the claim yourself and only having our assistance in relation to some of the stages.

How long does the process take?

The time from taking your initial instructions to the final resolution of a claim depends largely claim on the stage at which your case is resolved. If a settlement is reached during early conciliation, aided by ACAS, a claim is likely to take 2 to 6 weeks to conclude.

If a claim proceeds to a final hearing, then typically it will be in the range of 9 to 24 months from when the claim was submitted to the Tribunal.

The date for the final hearing is usually set at the preliminary hearing, which generally takes place 3-6 months after the deadline for your formal response to the claim.

Disbursements

Disbursements are costs and expenses related to a claim that are payable to third parties, such as barristers’ fees. As we instruct the barrister on your behalf, we handle the payment of their fees, having first obtained money on account from you.

We will usually recommend that we instruct a barrister to represent you at the final hearing and at any preliminary or interim hearing to determine substantive legal issues.

Barristers’ fees range from £1,000 to £5,000+ per day (excluding VAT), depending on their level of experience and availability. We will only engage the services of a barrister once you have agreed to their fees and remitted funds on account to us to enable us to pay them for you.

Travel expenses will be charged at cost (without any uplift) to you for attending any hearings on your behalf or with you. We may also incur some postage or courier costs, and in complex cases, we may use an e-discovery platform to handle voluminous electronic documentation.

The amount of these expenses will depend on the location of the hearing and the number of times that travel is incurred.

We are the lawyers you want on your side. Please contact justice@griffin.law or use the form below to get in touch.