BG Solicitors - Employment Law

The rules governing employment are complex and ever-changing. We can assist you in resolving your employment disputes in a number of ways beginning with early negotiations and discussions with your employer through to Early Conciliation with ACAS and, where necessary, before a Tribunal.

Our Employment Team can provide you with advice and support regarding;

Unfair or Constructive Dismissal
Discrimination
Settlement Agreements
Redundancy
Disciplinary and Grievances
Contractual Disputes
Deductions from your wages
Pay issues
Maternity, Paternity and Shared Parental Leave rights

We will talk to you in clear terms about the costs of your action, and where possible we will let you have a Fixed Fee quotation or look to represent you on a No Win, No Fee agreement.

Our Employment Team is supervised by Ben Barber who has over 20 years experience in Litigation and qualified as a Solicitor in 2003. The team is made up of a Solicitor and a Chartered Legal Executive with between 8 and 19 years experience.

Bringing and defending claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal

Legal costs only

Full costs to take a case to conclusion at hearing:
Simple case: from £5,500.00 (excluding VAT)
Medium complexity case: from £6,250.00 (excluding VAT)
High complexity case: from £7,250.00 (excluding VAT)

We may be prepared to act on your behalf subject to a Contingency Fee Agreement allowing for costs to be limited to 33% of your award on success. NB: subject to terms and advocacy fees/disbursements as set out below:-

Preliminary Hearing with a time estimate of 90 minutes – £300 plus VAT;
Final Hearing 1 day – £1000 plus VAT;
Per day thereafter – £750 plus VAT;
Travel expenses (TBC based upon location of hearings).

NB. Cases can be listed for multiple days consecutively or part heard over a number of months depending on Tribunal’s availability. The hearing dates/number of days will not be known until the case is advanced.

Factors that could make a case more complex:

Making or defending 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 facts to be determined in discrimination claims (if this is not agreed by the parties);
The number of witnesses and documents;
If it is an automatic unfair dismissal claim e.g. whistleblowing ;
Allegations of discrimination which are linked to the dismissal ;

Disbursements

Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties. We will advise you of any likely disbursements from the outset and it is this firm’s policy to seek payment of the disbursement on account from the outset. We will, however, handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to the third party to ensure a smoother process.

If required/recommended, Counsel’s fees estimated between £2,500.00 to £3,500.00 per day (depending on experience of the advocate) for attending a Tribunal Hearing (including preparation) (excluding VAT)

Anti-money laundering electronic verification checks maybe undertaken at a cost to you of between £6 – 12 (inclusive of VAT) dependent on the level of checks required, per name of each client.

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;
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 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.

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 8-10 weeks. If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, your case is likely to take 20-26 weeks. 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.