Employment – bringing and defending claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal

Whether our clients need to bring or defend claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal, an experienced member of our team is available to assist.

Our fees will either be agreed with our client as a fixed sum at the start of the case or based on how much time it takes to deal with the case. Rosemary Stokes, who is an experienced Solicitor currently also deals with all employment matters and Rosemary’s hourly rate is £325 plus VAT. Rosemary is supervised by Mahesh Kakkar who is one of the Partners and his hourly rate is £350 plus VAT. For more information about our Solicitors please see: Solicitors at Alpha Lexis Law Firm

To give a very general idea of how much our fees (excluding ‘Disbursements’ – see below) tend to be where an employee brings a claim for unfair or wrongful dismissal the ranges tend to be:

Simple case:
Typically 25 – 50 hours of our time resulting in costs of between £7,500 – £15,000 plus VAT plus Disbursements

Medium complexity case:
Typically 50 – 70 hours of our time resulting in costs of between £15,000 – £21,000 plus VAT plus Disbursements

High complexity case:
Typically 70 – 100 hours of our time resulting in costs of between £21,000 – £30,000 plus VAT plus Disbursements

There will be an additional charge for attending a Tribunal Hearing of £325 plus VAT per hour.

Generally, we would allow for 8 hours attendance per day, with a typical Tribunal Hearing lasting 2 – 3 days depending on the complexity of the case. This would result in costs for our attendance of £2,600 plus VAT plus Disbursements per day and therefore between £5,200 plus VAT plus Disbursements for a 2-day hearing and £7,800 plus VAT plus Disbursements for a 3-day hearing.

We always agree in advance with our clients whether or not a Solicitor and/or Barrister attendance is required.

Disbursements are costs related to the matter that are payable to third parties, such as Court Fees and Barrister’s Fees, who charge on a case by case basis after reviewing the paperwork and so, quotations will be obtained and agreed with you prior to instructing the Barrister. We handle the payment of the Disbursements on our client’s behalf to ensure a smoother process and you will be notified of such fees in advance.

Where a Barrister is instructed to carry out work on documents (for example to draft details of the claim, or details of the response) or to meet with our client in conference, we will obtain estimates of Barrister’s fees for approval before any costs are incurred.

VAT at the prevailing rate of 20% is set by the Government.

As can be seen from the above, the time spent on a case and our costs can vary significantly depending upon how complex a case is. A case is likely to be more complex (and so incur more time) if:

• It is necessary to attend a long hearing;
• it is necessary to make or defend applications to amend claims or to provide further information about an existing claim;
• it is necessary to defend claims that are brought by litigants in person
• it is necessary to make or defend a costs application
• there are complex preliminary issues such as whether the claimant is disabled (if this is not agreed by the parties)
• the number of witnesses and documents is high
• it is an automatic unfair dismissal claim e.g. if a person is dismissed after blowing the whistle on their employer 
• there are allegations of discrimination which are linked to the dismissal

Similarly though, other employment law cases such as employee settlement agreements would be much simpler and cost much less (and may be paid by the employer). Call us on 0203 355 3940 to discuss this matter further.

Please note that normally it is not necessary to pay your opponent’s costs in an employment claim, but we do highlight if we feel that there is a risk of this at any stage.

By way of example the costs referred to above cover all of the work in relation to the following key stages of an unfair dismissal or wrongful dismissal case:

• Taking initial instructions, reviewing the papers and advising on prospects of success in the claim and the likely compensation, although this is likely to be revisited throughout the case and subject to change.
• Entering into pre-claim conciliation with ACAS where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached.
• Preparing claim or response.
• Reviewing and advising on the claim or response from the other party.
• Exploring settlement and negotiating 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 a bundle of documents.
• Taking witness statements, drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses.
• Preparing bundles of documents for the final hearing.
• Reviewing and advising on the other party's witness statements.
• Agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list.
• Preparation and instructions to the barrister (if this is not being done in-house by us) for the final hearing.

The stages set out above are an indication only and if some of the stages are not required, the fee may be reduced. Some clients may wish to attempt to handle some parts of a very straight-forward matter themselves and only have our advice in relation to some of the stages. This can also reduce the cost if the case is one where we’re comfortable that this is a sensible approach to take.

It would not normally be necessary to undertake other work or incur other costs other than those described above. However, we would be very happy to provide a more tailored quote for all stages of our client(s) particular case once we know about their specific circumstances.

The time it takes from initial instructions to the end of the case depends largely on the stage at which it is resolved. If a settlement is reached during pre-claim discussions, the case is likely to take 3 – 4 weeks. If the claim proceeds to a final hearing, the case is likely to take 18 – 36 weeks. This is just an illustration, and we will be able to give a more accurate timescale once we have more information and as the case progresses.