By law all employees must be treated fairly and equally. If you feel you are not treated fairly and equally and have a grievance against your employer, then contact Beaumonde Law Practice and we will show you how to raise your grievance with your employer.

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If your employer is taking disciplinary action against you, then Beaumonde Law Practice will show you how to defend it. At Beaumonde Law Practice, we can help you bring or defend proceedings at the employment tribunal and may be able to agree “No win No fee” funding (case dependant). We can also advise you regarding settlement/compromise agreements (where your employer would usually pay the costs of your legal advice by ourselves).

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If you feel you are the victim of discrimination, bullying, victimisation (whether sexual, religious, racial or homophobic), unfair dismissal, or unfair selection for redundancy then contact Beaumonde Law Practice for expert help and guidance.

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COSTS OF BRINGING OR DEFENDING A CLAIM FOR UNFAIR DISMISSAL OR WRONGFUL DISMISSAL.

Starting proceedings at an Employment tribunal is a last resort. Before that, we would go out of our way to settle a claim , to your advantage, in the most cost advantageous way.

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PRE- PROCEEDING COSTS.

We could , at an earlier stage, help you to complain about your employer or to defend disciplinary proceedings. Sometimes a case can settle this early. The cost of assisting you at this stage is likely to be £300-1000 plus VAT depending on how complex the complaint or the disciplinary proceedings are.

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ACAS

If your employment comes to an end, and the matter is not settled, then we can help you to apply to ACAS, who must be given the chance to try and settle the dispute with your employer, before you are allowed to bring a claim at the employment tribunal.

 

If we start by representing you in pre action conciliation at ACAS then it will also be necessary for us to take instructions from you and this would incur an extra fee whilst we consulted with you and considered your documentation, prior to making the application to ACAS.

 

The amount charged for this would depend upon the amount of paperwork we needed to consider and on the complexity of the case.

If we were already representing you, prior to pre-action conciliation ,then the £550 plus VAT would be the fixed fee chargeable for that part of our service to you.

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ISSUING A CLAIM

If it becomes necessary to issue proceedings then it is impossible to be exact, about costs, because there are so many factors which can lead to an increase or decrease. In our experience, each case is unique.

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The following may result in higher costs because they mean that it will take longer to prepare and present your case.

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1. A large number of incidents

2. Additional claims apart from wrongful or unfair dismissal. (e.g. discrimination).

3. A greater number of witnesses.

4. Whether your claim is part of a group claim against your employer.

5. Whether we need to issue proceedings against other people apart from your employer.

6. The number of case management hearings before the final hearing takes place.

7. The length of the final hearing.

8. If it is necessary to make or defend applications to amend claims or to provide further information about an existing claim

9. Making or defending a costs application

10. Complex preliminary issues such as whether the claimant is disabled (if this is not agreed with your opponent).

11. The number of documents involved.

12. If it is an automatic unfair dismissal claim e.g. if you are dismissed after blowing the whistle on your employer

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FUNDING OPTIONS.

INSURANCE

If you have a household insurance policy which covers legal fees, then your insurance company may agree to fund your case.

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However, before they can decide, they usually require advice from us, or from a Barrister, as to the chances of success and what the likely level of damages you might expect to be awarded, if you were successful in your claim.

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You would be responsible for the cost of obtaining this advice.

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The cost of obtaining such an advice would be £750 to £2000 plus VAT depending on the complexity of the claim and whether the insurance company wanted Sundeep Bhatia , or a Barrister, to advise. If a Barrister was required, then the fee would depend on the experience of the Barrister.

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NO WIN. NO FEE.

We can sometimes deal with a case on a no win no fee basis but this would be case dependant. If your case is complex , or if the chances of success are low, then we are unlikely to deal with a claim in this way. If you wanted us to decide whether we could deal with your case, in this way, then we would charge an evaluation fee. The evaluation fee would depend on how complex your claim was and how much paperwork we would need to consider.

The charge for an evaluation tends to be between £750 and £2500 plus VAT.

After considering your case paperwork, we would give you a written decision as to whether we could take on your case on a no win no fee basis.

If we decide that we can then this would mean that, if your case was successful then we would charge you a percentage of between a quarter and a third of the amount awarded to you by the tribunal plus VAT plus disbursements such as expert fees, travel and parking . The percentage would vary depending on the value and the complexity of your case. Costs are not usually awarded at the Employment tribunal so you are unlikely to recover our fees, from your employer ,if you are successful. If you were unsuccessful then all you would have paid us would be the evaluation fee as well as disbursements such as travel, petrol and parking .

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If we agree to represent you on a no win no fee basis then we would need to enter into a formal agreement with you and you would be subject to the terms of that agreement.

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FUNDING BY THE HOUR.

The third way of funding an employment tribunal case is by paying us by the hour. Sundeep Bhatia of this firm has been qualified as a solicitor since 1992 and his hourly charging rate is £350 an hour plus VAT.

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COST ESTIMATES CHARGING BY THE HOUR.

The following estimates would apply if a case was conducted through from issuing proceedings up until the conclusion of an employment tribunal case. In many cases, settlement takes place long before a tribunal case is heard which would mean that the actual costs would be less than the estimate.

The estimates are

STRAIGHTFORWARD CASE - £5000 to £12,000 plus VAT.
MEDIUM COMPLEXITY-  £12,001 to £18,000 plus VAT.
HIGH COMPLEXITY - £18,001 to £30,000 plus VAT.

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WHAT WE DO

The services we would provide in preparing your case are as follows.

 

• Preparing a claim

• Reviewing and advising on a response from your employer

• 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 a bundle of documents (If required to do so by the Court. However, it is usually your employer who would be responsible.)

• 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 Final Hearing, including instructions to Counsel

• The stages set out above are an indication and if some of the stages above are not required, then this will reduce the cost.

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HOW LONG WILL MY MATTER TAKE

The time that it takes depends on the stage at which your case is settled. If a settlement is reached during pre-claim negotiations, then your case is likely to take 2-4 weeks. If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, then your case may take between 9 to 18 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.

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Please note that the above cost estimates only apply if Sundeep Bhatia of this firm is preparing and presenting your tribunal case.

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If we feel it appropriate, or if you require it, then we can instruct a Barrister to present your case.

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However, additional fees would apply depending on the complexity of the case and the seniority of the Barrister instructed.

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INITIAL FIXED FEE MEETING

We appreciate that all of the above is complex and that there is a lot to discuss. Not all of the above would apply in every case. We do an initial fixed fee consultation of £225 plus VAT.