Employment Service Charges

The Employment Team at Healys has collectively over 29 years’ experience in delivering high-quality work in employment law & practice. The Team has particular expertise in unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal clams.

Regardless of who works on your matter, they will be supervised by Allison Grant, Partner & Head of Employment.

Allison Grant is the head of our team and has over 24 years’ experience as a solicitor in employment law & practice work. Allison has a Master’s Degree in Employment Law.

Our pricing for bringing and defending claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal

We charge our work based on hourly rates. This varies depending on the level of experience of the fee earner.

Allison Grant, Partner & Head of Employment, hourly rate is £320 (exclusive of VAT)

Solicitor, hourly rate is £250 (exclusive of VAT)

Trainee Solicitor, hourly rate is £150 plus VAT (exclusive of VAT)

Simple case: £7,000 to £12,500 (excluding VAT)

Medium complexity case: £15,000 to £30,000 (excluding VAT)

High complexity case: £30,000 upwards (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) or jurisdictional points such as time limits
• The amount of documents
• The number of witnesses
• Making or defending a specific disclosure application
• If it is an automatic unfair dismissal claim e.g. if you are dismissed after blowing the whistle on your employer
• Allegations of discrimination and/or blowing the whistle which are linked to the dismissal

If a member of our team covers the advocacy for a Tribunal Hearing there will be an additional charge for attending a Hearing of between £450 and £950 per day (excluding VAT). The charge depends on the complexity of the case and the level of experience of the fee earner.

Preliminary Hearings are normally covered within a day; whereas Full Merits Hearings could be between 2 and 6 days, depending on the complexity of the case.

Disbursements

If Counsel covers the advocacy, there will be a Brief fee to cover Counsel’s preparation for the Hearing and to include day one of the Hearing. The Brief fee is estimated to be between £1,500 and £5,500 (exclusive of VAT). In addition, Counsel will charge a Refresher fee, which is a fee per day for days 2, 3, 4 of the Hearing etc. The Refresher fee will depend on the level of experience of the Counsel, and is estimated to be between £500 and £1,500 (exclusive of VAT), ranging from junior to more senior Counsel.

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 the merits of the claim and likely compensation (revisited throughout the matter and subject to change)
• Entering into pre-claim conciliation via ACAS where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached
• Preparing ET1 Claim or ET3 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 Statements
• Agreeing a List of Issues, a Chronology and/or Cast List
• Preparation and attendance at Final Hearing, including Brief to Counsel

The stages set out above are an indication of the process, 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 based on your individual needs.

Conditional fees do not apply.

We recommend you check any insurance policies to ascertain whether or not you have access to legal expenses insurance that may cover legal representation to make a Claim or defend a Claim.

How long will my matter take?

The time that it takes from taking your initial instruction 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 via ACAS, your case may take between 2 to 6 weeks.

If your claim proceeds to a Full Merits Hearing, your case may take between 6 to 12 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.