Employment pricing information
Our employment lawyers are highly experienced specialists, consistently recognised in national directories as one of the leading teams in the region. We take great pride in offering a first-rate service to all clients, whether their issue is straightforward and modest in value, or extremely urgent, technically complex, or involving large sums of compensation. However high the stakes, outcomes really matter. Whether you are wanting to transition out of your role and maximise your pay out, or whether your business needs to urgently ask the High Court to Order an ex-employee who has stolen confidential data to hand it back, we are deeply invested in achieving the best result for you, in as swift and effective a fashion as possible.
Our clients recognise that, whilst our charges are considerably lower that employment teams based in large London firms, we are not the cheapest firm locally. However, our clients consistently feedback that our charges are good value for the excellent service we provide.
No two cases are the same and almost all the work we do will need to be priced in a bespoke way, bearing in mind the urgency and complexity of the work, and the needs and priorities of our clients. Some clients prefer to ‘pay as they go’ based on the time we spend at an agreed hourly rate. Others prefer to agree a fixed fee for a particular job of stage of work, or that our fees are linked in some way to the outcome achieved, and whilst this may not always be possible, we are very happy to explore these options with you.
However we charge, those charges are underpinned by our hourly rates.
Hourly rates
Louise Attrup has 20 years post qualification experience. She charges £320 plus VAT at 20% per hour for straightforward matters, rising to £365 plus VAT at 20% for cases which are unusually complex, urgent and/or high in value.
Michael Kerrigan has almost 10 years post qualification experience and charges £320 plus VAT at 20% for straightforward matters, rising to £365 plus VAT at 20% for cases which are unusually complex, urgent and/or high in value.
Total fees
Taking a case of unfair and wrongful dismissal as an example, these are cases where an employee complains that he/she should not have been dismissed and that their employer failed to give them notice or notice pay.
- A very simple case listed for a half day hearing : £500-£2,000 plus VAT @ 20% (between £100 and £400 VAT)
- A medium complexity case listed for a day’s hearing: £3,000-£5,500 plus VAT @ 20% (between £300 and £1,100 VAT)
- A high complexity case listed for two days or more: £5,000 to £15,000 plus VAT @ 20% (between £500 and £3,000 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)
- 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.
Disbursements
In addition, we would normally instruct a barrister on your behalf to represent you at trial and these fees could start at £500 plus VAT at 20% for a one-day hearing (for someone very junior) and average £1,500 plus VAT at 20% for a barrister of 5-10 years’ experience or more.
The above charges would cover the following:
- taking your instructions, reviewing the papers and advising you
- dealing with ACAS
- 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
- exchanging documents with the other party and agreeing a bundle of documents
- taking witness statements, drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses
- preparing trial 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.
Factors which are likely to mean the overall fees increase, and bespoke estimates will need to be provided, include:
- where the trial is listed for two or more days (this will be because of the number of documents or witnesses and therefore considerably more work will be needed to prepare the case from the outset)
- where there are discrimination or whistleblowing elements to an unfair dismissal
- where interim hearings are listed to consider issues such as whether the claim was made in time.
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 and also how busy the Employment Tribunals are. If a settlement is reached during pre-claim conciliation, your case is likely to take 4-8 weeks. If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, your case is likely to take 26-40 weeks. We will of course be able to give you a more accurate timescale once we have more information and as the matter progresses.