Our pricing for bringing and defending Employment Tribunal claims.

As an indication of the likely charges:

Simple case: £3,000-£6,000 (excluding VAT)

Medium complexity case: £6,000-£12,000 (excluding VAT)

High complexity case: £12,000-£35,000 (excluding VAT)

Fox Whitfield is not curreently VAT registered so no VAT will be added to our charges.

Some very complex cases may exceed these costs.

Hourly rates vary depending on who is dealing with your case and its complexity – please email us to provide a detailed cost for your case.

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.

Disbursements

Disbursements are out of pocket expenses and costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as court fees.

Counsel’s fees are usually the main disbursement costs in Employment Tribunal cases and are estimated between £750 to £5,000 per day excluding VAT, charged at 20% (depending on the experience of the advocate) for attending a Tribunal Hearing (including preparation).  Disbursements may also attract VAT at 20%.

Key stages of an Employment Tribunal Claim

The fees set out above cover all the work in relation to the following key stages of a claim:-

• Taking your initial instructions, reviewing the papers and advising you on merits, strategy 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
• Reviewing and advising on the other party’s witness statement
• Agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list
• Preparation and attendance at Final Hearing, including instructions to Counsel.

The stages set out above are an indication and if some of the stages above are not required, our fees will be adjusted to reflect this. 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 according to your individual requirements.

Alternative Funding

It may be that you have some form of Legal Expenses cover that will fund the legal costs and disbursements involved in bringing or defending this type of claim. For an employee, this may be available to you under your household insurance or motor policy or as a feature of a premium bank account. You may belong to a Union that offers a legal assistance scheme.

If you are an employer, you may have cover through membership of a trade or professional organisation you subscribe to.

We will discuss any options that may be open to you at your first appointment.

No Win-No Fee Agreements

We do not act under No-Win No Fee arrangements.

Resolving complaints

To raise a concern or to make a complaint please raise it with Paul Whitfield.

We hope and expect to be able to reach a satisfactory solution with you. However, if you are still not satisfied, please ask to have the matter reviewed. A copy of our complaints procedure is availbale here http://www.foxwhitfield.com/complaints-process.

If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ of by by email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. to consider the complaint.

The Legal Ombudsman will not normally accept a complaint for investigation unless eight weeks
have passed since you first raised your complaint with us. This is to allow us the opportunity to
deal with your concerns.

You may make a complaint at any time within six months of our final decision about your complaint.
If you do not refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within that six month period, then your
complaint may not be accepted by the Ombudsman.

You may also lose your right to refer a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman if more than six years
have passed since the event(s) about which you want to complain, or if more than three years
have passed since you should have realised that you had a possible complaint.

If your concern relates to our conduct you may wish to make a complaint to The Solicitors
Regulation Authority.

If you have any questions or would like a specific estimate of costs for a case please contact us.