pricing & regulatory information

Pricing

Regulatory requirements

Solicitors are required to publish information on prices and the services we offer under Rule 1 of the SRA Transparency Rules. 

Under paragraph 8.7 of the Solicitors Code of Conduct we are required to provide clients with the best possible information about how the work we will do will be priced and the likely overall cost. 

We recognise the importance to all clients of understanding our prices and how we charge both when you are making a decision to instruct us and throughout the time you are our client. 

As well as prices we are required to publish information on –

• What services are included in the price
• Any services that are not included but which you might expect to be included
• Details of the experience and qualifications of the lawyers and paralegals who will carry out the work
• Typical timescales
• Key stages of the matter

If you would like to receive a hard copy of the information contained on this page you can download it here or you can ask our Business team to send this to you by emailing business@didlaw.com.

Clear and up front about costs

We aim to be clear and up front about costs and related information so that we can avoid any misunderstandings later on and also avoid any costs-related complaints. We don’t receive many complaints. We pride ourselves on this and would like to keep it this way!

Scope of the work

Where the scope of the work is not initially clear either because you have not totally decided what you would like us to do or because you have several options available we will give you an initial estimate for the first part of the work we do and then will update you on further costs as we go forward. We will then update you at every stage throughout the time we are working for you. 

Our specialist legal team

Our team of specialist employment discrimination solicitors have decades of years of experience in dealing with employment disputes. 

Our CEO Karen Jackson leads a team comprising Managing Partner Elizabeth McGlone and expert disability discrimination solicitor Anita Vadgama. Between these three partners and the other expert lawyers on our team we have helped hundreds of clients reach successful conclusions and win cases. Our more junior solicitors and members of the team are supervised by our partners so the quality of advice you receive is excellent regardless of the level of qualification of the solicitor or other team member who is helping you. 

We have a proven track record of excellent outcomes.

Our pricing is transparent, clear & upfront.

What does our advice cost

We want our clients to know, as far as we can predict in advance, what using our services will cost.

This means that once it is clear to us what you want us to do, we will use our experience to calculate how long it will take and give you an estimate upfront. We’ll update you along the way too.

If you come to us to review a contract, draft a letter or provide initial advice on your options going forward, we can often provide a single quote to complete that work. In other cases, where it is not clear how much (or how little) work is needed, for example, where you want us to take a claim on your behalf to the Employment Tribunal, it will involve providing you with a series of quotes against the various stages of the claim so you know what lies ahead, but we’ll always do a costs-benefit analysis so you are spending money to gain your desired outcome.

Deposit to open a file

We ask all our clients to provide a deposit before you can open a file with us. This money is off-set against your final bill when the matter is complete, or returned to you if we can get your employer to meet all your legal costs. When you instruct us we will confirm the amount of the deposit you will need to pay. This will depend on the complexity of the matter and on who is doing the work for you. It could be between £1,000 and £5,000. In rare and particularly document-heavy cases it may be higher but it will usually correspond to covering at least the first month of your legal fees. 

Paying our bills

We bill on a monthly basis at the beginning of every month. This means you can keep track of costs as your cases progresses and if you have concerns about future costs can alert this to us at the earliest opportunity. We do not advise that you take out debt to fund your legal fees. There is no guarantee that you will recover these costs. We will always try to recover some or all of your legal fees from your employer but there is no legal obligation for them to pay this and you must appreciate that these are your costs to pay. 

In most cases we will be able to secure a settlement that covers your costs and leaves you with cash to spare. We don’t like to take on cases unless there is a financial benefit for you and we are confident that we can add value. 

You can set a fixed limit on monthly costs if you prefer an alert during the month. Talk to us. We will do whatever we can to help you manage the financial side of taking legal advice. 

We also provide, with every bill, a detailed summary of the work done on your case so you can see how time has been spent. We encourage you to raise any concerns as soon as you become aware of them. 

We’re totally transparent.

We do not do any work that is funded by legal expenses insurance but you must check whether you have a household policy that could cover your legal costs and if so use a firm that does work on this basis. 

We also do not offer any conditional fee arrangements (no win no fee) for employment work. 

Our hands-on approach

We provide a very hands-on approach to our clients and build strong relationships. If you have any concerns about costs (or any aspect of our service) at any time please do not hesitate to contact our Business team business@didlaw.com. You can of course raise an issue at any time with the solicitor who is doing the work for you.

How much will it cost?

The price we will charge will depend on the complexity of the matter, the seniority of the lawyer working on the case and how long we judge that it will take us to complete the work in question. We’ll give you an idea before we start work so you feel in control. This will be set out in our What We Will Do For You form which every new client receives on becoming a client. 

Sometimes we can recover all your legal costs from your employer, or a contribution to those costs but you cannot depend on this every time.

What is included in the price?

Our prices will detail all the work included when we send you your quote. 

Unlike most law firms we do not charge for photocopying costs, courier fees and other incidentals of doing business. These costs are captured in our hourly rate. 

Our prices will not include third party fees such as external barrister’s fees or court fees. These are an extra cost and will depend on the length of any hearing, the amount of preparation and the experience of the advocate. We will offer you a range of options and will tell you upfront about these costs as they arise. We’ll also ask you to prepay third party fees in advance with plenty of notice.

We try to keep jargon free but there are a few terms that are in common use in legal services which we refer to. The main ones are:

Disbursements: these are third party costs paid by you but which you pay to us to pass on. For example, court fees or counsel’s fees. We will ask you to prepay these before incurring them.

Counsel’s fees: fees paid to a barrister who is working on your case either in preparation or to attend hearings on your behalf. An example of a disbursement.

Funds on account: this is a deposit of money we take from you either by bank transfer or debit/credit card via our payment platform Blink to prepay your legal costs. 

Legal costs: fees paid to your solicitor for legal services. 

Brief fee: the terminology barristers and their clerks use to describe their fee note or invoice. A brief fee is a one-off fee for doing a piece of work. If a brief fee has refreshers this means a daily amount payable for each subsequent day of a hearing after the first day, which is included in the brief fee. 

What is not included in the price & what might affect our pricing

If your case requires any expert medical or other evidence this will be an additional cost to you, to be agreed up front between you and the relevant expert. 

Costs may increase if your case is very document heavy. The best way to reduce your costs if you have a lot of documents is to ensure that you provide only those which are directly relevant to your case and that you present them in good order (chronological) so that we do not have to spend additional time organising the documents. 

Costs may increase if for any reason your hearing is delayed. Sometimes when a judge is not available at the last minute you can incur the barrister’s fees for the hearing even if the hearing does not take place. This is a hazard of litigation. 

If you send voluminous emails or want to spend a lot of time discussing your case with your lawyer over the phone this will inflate your costs. We charge the same hourly rate for dealing with all aspects of your case whether it is emails or phone calls or drafting legal documents. You can help with managing your costs by the way you interact with your lawyer and how much time you take up. 

When you open a file we will ask you to provide us with certain documents. You can download our CLIENT GUIDE – what we need from you here.

Hourly rates

Our lawyer’s hourly rates depend on the seniority and experience of the lawyer.

Our hourly rates are reviewed annually at the end of each financial year.

Our hourly rates range from £200 + VAT (at 20% i.e. £240 including VAT) to £750 + VAT (at 20%) (i.e. £900 including VAT).

Employment Tribunal claims for unfair and wrongful dismissal

A simple standalone claim for ordinary unfair or wrongful dismissal with a hearing length of between one and three days would cost in the region of £20,000 to £35,000 + VAT. The cost of a barrister for such hearings would be an additional cost of between £5,000 and £15,000 + VAT (20%).

A medium complexity case for unfair dismissal would be in the range of £40,000 to £60,000 + VAT plus the cost of a barrister fees for a 4 to 7 day hearing would cost an additional £25,000 to £35,000 + VAT. 

A high complexity case for unfair dismissal including allegations of discrimination would be in the range indicated below for discrimination claims. 

Employment Tribunal claims for discrimination claims

Discrimination claims are usually quite complex. They tend to take longer and require more preparation than a simple unfair or wrongful dismissal case. Costs are almost always significantly higher and for some kinds of discrimination cases more third-party costs will be incurred for, for example, medical evidence in disability discrimination cases and statistical evidence in indirect discrimination and equal pay cases. We’ll provide this information as your case progresses.

A discrimination claim is likely to cost you upwards of £100,000 + VAT plus the additional costs of a barrister to conduct any hearings. 

Timescales

Employment Tribunal proceedings for unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal and for discrimination claims will (unless settled) last somewhere between six and twenty-four months between issuing the claim and receiving the judgment.

The Employment Tribunal Service is currently beleaguered by significant delays in listing cases. It is possible that you could wait for up to a year, or even longer to have a hearing listed.

We’ll manage your expectations and guide you along the way.

You can download our Client guide to the usual stages of an Employment Tribunal claim here.