Employment Fees

On this page: Settlement agreements  ·  Employment tribunal claims

Settlement agreements

A settlement agreement is a legally binding agreement that ends your employment on agreed terms, usually with a payment. For it to be binding, the law requires you to take advice on it from a qualified independent adviser. That is the service we provide.

What you pay

Charge	Who pays	Amount
Initial administration and ID-check charge	You	£50 + VAT (£60 including VAT), non-refundable
Our fee for advising you on the agreement	Usually your employer	Agreed at the outset — minimum £500 + VAT

Most employers agree to pay a set amount towards the cost of your legal advice. At the start we will find out what your employer has offered, and confirm in writing what our fee will be. Our minimum fee is £500 + VAT. If your employer's contribution is less than our fee, we will tell you before we do any work on the agreement, so you can decide how to proceed. Our fee is invoiced to your employer.

The £50 + VAT administration and ID-check charge covers opening your file and our identity checks. It is non-refundable, including if your employer withdraws its offer or no agreement is reached.

Although your employer pays, we act only for you. Our advice is independent of them.

What's included

• Reading your settlement agreement and any related documents, and explaining what they mean in plain English
• Advising you on the claims you would be giving up by signing, and on whether the terms (payment, notice, reference, confidentiality, restrictions on future work) look fair
• Negotiating improvements with your employer or their representative where appropriate
• Checking the final agreement meets the legal requirements, and signing the adviser's certificate that makes it binding

What's not included

• Detailed tax advice on your termination payment. We will highlight the issues, but recommend you speak to an accountant or financial adviser about your own position
• Bringing a tribunal claim if you and your employer cannot agree terms. We would discuss that with you separately first (see below)
• Any work beyond what we have agreed with you in writing

Key stages

1. You send us the agreement your employer has offered you
2. We carry out identity checks and open your file (the £50 + VAT charge)
3. We confirm your employer's contribution and our fee in writing
4. We review the agreement and advise you, by phone or in person
5. We negotiate any changes with your employer's side
6. Once you are happy with the final terms, you sign and we sign the adviser's certificate

Likely timescale

Employers often ask for a settlement agreement to be signed within 7 to 14 days, so we move quickly. We aim to review your agreement and advise you within three working days of receiving it and your ID. Most agreements are finalised within one to three weeks, depending on whether the terms are negotiated. If you have been given a deadline, please tell us straight away.

Who will carry out your work

Settlement agreements are usually handled by Sarah Worth, a solicitor, and occasionally by Claire Myatt, a director and solicitor who qualified in March 2010. We will confirm who is handling your matter when you instruct us.

Employment tribunal claims

Fee information for claims of unfair or wrongful dismissal.

Our fee arrangement

We act on employment tribunal claims on a no-win, no-fee basis. Every case is assessed individually on its merits before we agree to take it on — we won't take on a claim we don't think has a realistic prospect of success, and we'll tell you honestly if we don't think it does.

If we act for you and your claim is successful, our fee is 25% of the compensation you recover, plus VAT (30% in total including VAT). That is within the legal maximum of 35% including VAT for tribunal claims. The same percentage applies if your claim settles before a hearing, including through ACAS. If your claim is unsuccessful, you will not pay our fees for the work we've done.

The exact terms, including what happens to any costs awarded against you, will be set out clearly in your client care letter and funding agreement before you instruct us.

Indicative overall cost

Because every case is different, we can't give a single fixed price. To give you a sense of scale, the table shows the typical value of the work involved, calculated at £200 per hour plus VAT (£240 including VAT). That is the rate for Sarah Worth, in line with the court's published guideline rate for a solicitor of her experience in our area.

Case complexity	Example	Estimated time	Value of work (plus VAT)
Straightforward	Clear facts, single claim (e.g. straightforward unfair dismissal), no need for expert evidence, 1-day hearing	30 – 45 hours	£6,000 – £9,000
Medium complexity	Multiple claims, some factual disputes, 2–3 day hearing	70 – 110 hours	£14,000 – £22,000
High complexity	Discrimination claims, multiple witnesses, expert evidence, hearing of 4+ days	130 – 200+ hours	£26,000 – £40,000+

These figures show the value of the work involved, not what you'd pay upfront. Under our no-win, no-fee arrangement, our fee is the percentage of your compensation described above, and only becomes payable if your claim succeeds.

What's included

• An initial assessment of the merits of your claim
• Advice on and support through ACAS Early Conciliation (a mandatory step before most claims)
• Drafting and submitting your ET1 claim form (or reviewing and responding to an ET3, if you're defending a claim)
• Correspondence with the Tribunal and the other side
• Advising on disclosure of documents and preparing the hearing bundle
• Preparing witness statements
• Representation at the Final Hearing, for hearings of up to three days

What's not included

Some things are outside our fee arrangement and may involve an additional cost, which we'll always discuss with you before it's incurred:

• Any barristers' (Counsel's) fees required
• Expert witness reports, where needed — typically £500 – £2,000 plus VAT per report
• Hearings of more than three days (we would agree the arrangement with you in advance)
• Employment Tribunal issue fees — there is currently no fee to bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal
• Reasonable travel costs for hearings held more than 40 miles from our Llandudno Junction office

Key stages

1. Initial assessment of your claim's merits
2. Early Conciliation through ACAS
3. Drafting and submitting the ET1 claim form (or responding via the ET3)
4. Case management — directions and disclosure of documents
5. Preparing witness statements
6. Preparing the hearing bundle
7. The Final Hearing
8. Dealing with the judgment and, where applicable, the remedy stage

Likely timescale

ACAS Early Conciliation comes first and can take up to 12 weeks. After the ET1 is submitted, claims currently often take three to five years to reach a Final Hearing, though this depends heavily on how busy the Tribunal is in your region, the length of the hearing and the complexity of your case. Many claims settle much earlier. We'll give you a more specific estimate once we understand your claim.

Who will carry out your work

Employment tribunal claims are handled by Sarah Worth, a solicitor.

Your matter will be allocated to whoever is appropriate given its complexity, and we'll confirm who is handling your file at the outset.