What would you charge me for dealing with an Unfair/Wrongful Dismissal Claim?
Costs will always be an important factor when deciding to bring (or defend) a claim in the employment tribunal and we have attempted to set out below the likely costs that you may incur when bringing (or defending) an unfair and/or wrongful dismissal.
Every claim will be different: some will be more complicated (either factually or evidentially or both), there will be cases where the merits of the claim will be very good and there will be other cases where the claim may not have good prospects of succeeding at the employment tribunal.
So far as an unfair and/or wrongful dismissal claim is concerned, the costs can vary considerably depending upon the facts, merits, evidence and legal issues that may apply to a particular case. However, as a general guide, our usual costs for dealing with an unfair and/or wrongful dismissal (whether for the Claimant or Respondent) would be as follows:
Our costs – £8,000 plus VAT of £1,600
Counsel’s fee of around £2,500 plus VAT of £500. Therefore the overall costs would be in the region of £10,500 plus VAT of £2,100 (a total cost of £12,600).
Please note that these estimated costs are based upon the following assumptions:
- The claim proceeds to a final hearing of no more than 1 day
- There is only one Claimant and one Respondent to the claim
- The claim is conducted in the Birmingham Employment Tribunal
- There is no postponement of the preliminary hearing and/or the final hearing
- The claim does not include any other claims such as unlawful deduction of wages or discrimination
- The claim does not include any counterclaims
- The total number of witnesses (for both parties) does not exceed three and are based in the West Midlands (so no requirement for us to travel outside of this area)
- No expert fees (other than in relation to Counsel)
- No judicial mediation and/or judicial assessment takes place
- There are no applications made by either party during the course of the employment tribunal proceedings
- There are no costs applications either during or after the employment tribunal proceedings
- We would not attend the final hearing as you would be represented by a barrister
- The value of the claim does not exceed £40,000
The costs set out above would also apply to a constructive dismissal claim provided that the above mentioned assumptions all apply to such a claim.
Could my costs vary from the above mentioned costs of £12,600?
Yes, as we usually charge for the amount of time that we work on your matter. As most of the employment claims we handle (whether for the Claimant or Respondent) will settle at some stage during the employment tribunal proceedings, this will usually mean that you will only pay for the amount of time we have spent on your matter.
By way of example, if your case settled within say 4 weeks of the claim being issued, then our actual costs may only be £2,500 plus VAT. If no costs had been incurred for the barrister and depending upon the time we have actually spent on your matter, if this illustration was the case, then this is all you would have to pay to us.
However, you should also note that if the matter does proceed to a final hearing and some of the above mentioned assumptions do not apply (such as the matter being listed for a final hearing in excess of 1 day or the parties engage in a judicial mediation which is unsuccessful) then this would mean that our overall costs could exceed the figure of £12,600.
Will you let me know in advance if my costs are likely to exceed £12,600?
Upon any client instructing us we will issue a retainer letter which includes detailed advice on the case and costs. We will normally try and work within the costs estimate that we have provided and if this is likely to be exceeded, then we would give you advanced warning of this risk and we would also provide you with the reasons why this initial estimate is now likely to be exceeded.
What is meant by the Term “Disbursements”?
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as court fees, barrister fees (“Counsel”) and other experts. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.
On the basis of a 1 day unfair and/or wrongful dismissal claim (please see the above assumptions) we would estimate that Counsel would charge up to £2,500 plus VAT. However, there may be a variation to Counsel’s fees based upon the level of experience of the barrister i.e. the more experienced the barrister the higher his/her fee will be on the matter.
Any payment of Counsels fees will need to be paid to us in advance of instructing Counsel to attend on your behalf. We shall of course notify you in advance of this.
Additional Costs
At the stage of a preliminary hearing the parties can opt to engage in Judicial Mediation in an attempt to settle any claim. Both parties need to agree to this for it to become applicable. Should this be agreed, Judicial Mediation usually lasts for 1 day and takes place at the Employment Tribunal with a Judge as the mediator. Our costs to prepare and attend the mediation on your behalf will be in the region of £1500 plus VAT (based upon an unfair and/or wrongful dismissal claim with the above mentioned assumptions) and travel expenses should the mediation take place outside of Birmingham.
In the case of a straight forward unfair and/or wrongful dismissal we would not anticipate the need to instruct Counsel, but if you wanted Counsel to attend the mediation then we would estimate his/her fee to be in the region of £1750 plus VAT.
Key stages
The fees set out above cover all of the work in relation to the following key stages of a claim:
- Taking your initial instructions, reviewing the papers and advising you on merits and likely compensation (this is likely to be revisited throughout the matter)
- Preparing a claim or a response to a claim
- Reviewing and advising on a response received from the other party
- Exploring settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process
- Preparing or considering a schedule of loss
- Preparing a bundle of documents, to include drafting a list of documents for disclosure
- Preparing for (and attending) a Preliminary Hearing if required by the Tribunal
- Exchanging documents with the other party (disclosure) and agreeing a bundle of documents
- Taking witness statements, to include drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses
- Reviewing and advising on the other party’s witness statements
- Agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list as the Tribunal may dictate
- Preparation for Final Hearing, to include drafting instructions / brief to Counsel (who would usually attend and represent you at this hearing)
The stages set out above are an indication of some of the work that will be carried out and if some of stages above are not required, the fee may 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 costed on your individual needs.
How long will my matter take?
The time that it takes from taking your initial instructions to the final resolution of your matter depends largely on the stage at which your case is resolved. If your claim proceeds to a final hearing, your case is likely to take around 26 – 65 weeks. This is just an estimate and we will of course be able to give you a more accurate timescale once we have more information and as the matter progresses. The scheduling of any final hearing is done on the availability of the Employment Tribunal and so time estimates can vary from case to case.
A profile of all of our Employment Law staff is available on this website via the links below: