We will provide prompt, practical advice, tailored to your specific requirements.
An introduction to our Employment Team:
- Our Employment team have approx. 50 years’ employment law experience between them.
- Membership of Employment Lawyers Association.
- Once you appoint Clifton Ingram you will have a single dedicated person assigned to you, ensuring that they are familiar with all aspects and can provide you with continuity.
- Our team will keep you informed at every stage of the process and can meet with you personally should you wish to discuss any issues.
- Clifton Ingram is authorised under the Legal Services Act and therefore carries a much higher professional indemnity insurance than non-authorised firms for your peace of mind.
- You also have the assurance that if you believe that a regulated firm like us owes you money, you may be able to claim from the SRA Compensation Fund.
- Clifton Ingram’s Employment team is ranked in the Legal 500 who said this about us in their most recent edition:
- Pricing for bringing and defending claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal
- Clifton Ingram’s Employment team is ranked in the Legal 500 who said this about us in their most recent edition:
- “The team was very knowledgeable and gave good advice.”
- “Robert Cherry was always available and dealt with all matters in hand very efficiently.”
- “Responsive and managed a sensitive situation very effectively and in a timely manner.”
- “Alison Gair’s employment experience and sound, professional advice was excellent.”
Pricing for bringing and defending claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal
Our hourly rate is £315 plus VAT per hour with each hour being split into units of 6 minutes (10 units in an hour). This is the basis upon which your case would be handled by an experienced senior solicitor with a minimum of 15 years post qualification experience in employment law matters.
- Simple case: £10,000 - £15,000 (excluding VAT) plus disbursements
- Medium complexity case: £15,000 - £25,000 (excluding VAT) plus disbursements
- High complexity case: £25,000 - £55,000 (excluding VAT) plus disbursements
Variable 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 you are dismissed after blowing the whistle on your employer.
- Allegations of discrimination which are linked to the dismissal.
There will be an additional charge for attending a Tribunal Hearing of £1,000 - £1,250 per day (excluding VAT) plus travel time and expenses for hearings not held in Reading. Generally, we would allow 1-3 days, but it may be longer depending on the complexity of your case.
Disbursements
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as court fees, Counsel’s fees, expert’s fees and travel expenses.
Counsel’s fees are estimated at an initial fee for attending the first day of the tribunal hearing (including preparation) of between £1,000 and £5,000 together with a fee of between £1,000 and £1,750 for each additional day of the hearing (depending on the experience of the advocate, the amount of papers involved and the complexity of the case).
Stages of the process
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 may be less. 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 - 12 weeks. If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, your case is likely to take 40 - 78 weeks depending upon whether any preliminary hearings are required and the availability of the Tribunal. 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.
Who will advise you?
We allocate the most appropriate member of our Employment team to your matter once you instruct us, taking into account the complexity of the case and the most appropriate experienced required.
You can see details on experience and qualifications of our Employment team here.