Employment Tribunal Costs
Our pricing for bringing and defending claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal (excluding disbursements) is set out below. All charges are subject to payment of VAT at 20%.
Simple case: £4000 – £10,000 (excluding VAT)
Medium complexity case: £10,000 – £20,000 (excluding VAT)
High complexity case: £20,000 – £75,000 (excluding VAT).
Factors that could make a case more complex:
- If it is necessary to make or defend applications to amend claims or to provide further information about an existing claim
- Defending claims that are brought by litigants in person
- Making or defending a costs application
- Complex preliminary issues such as whether the claimant is disabled (if this is not agreed by the parties)
- The number of witnesses and documents
- If it is an automatic unfair dismissal claim e.g. if an employee is dismissed after ‘blowing the whistle’ on his/her employer
- Allegations of discrimination which are linked to the dismissal
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 and subject to change)
- Entering into pre-claim conciliation where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached;
- Preparing claim or response
- Reviewing and advising on claim or response from other party
- Exploring settlement and negotiating 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 bundle of documents for the Tribunal hearing
- Reviewing and advising on the other party’s witness statements
- Agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list
- Preparation and attendance at the Final Hearing, including instructions to Counsel
The stages set out above are an indication and if some of stages above are not required, the fee 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 on your individual needs.
Disbursements – Counsel’s fees
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as a barrister (often referred to as counsel). We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf.
Subject to availability of our in-house counsel / advocates, it may be necessary to instruct a barrister to represent you at the Employment Tribunal hearing. The fees outlined above are exclusive of counsel fees. Barristers’ fees are broken down into two areas:
- a Brief fee, which covers their preparation for the hearing and the first day of the hearing and
- a Refresher, which covers each additional day after the first day of the hearing.
Brief fees are estimated to be between £850 to £5000 plus VAT (depending on the level of experience of the Barrister, the complexity of the case and the length of the hearing). Refreshers are estimated to be between £700 to £1250 plus VAT (depending on the level of experience of the Barrister).
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 a settlement is reached during pre-claim conciliation, your case is likely to take four to six weeks. If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, your case is likely to take between six and twelve months. 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.