pricing & regulatory information

pricing

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.

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.

We can set a fixed limit on monthly costs if you prefer an alert mid-month.

We also provide, with every bill, a line by line summary of the work done on your case.

We’re totally transparent.

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 Practice Manager Ellie Rowley. You can of course raise an issue at any time with the solicitor who is doing 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.

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. 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.

Hourly rates

Our lawyers hourly rates depend on the seniority of the lawyer or lawyers engaged.

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

Our hourly rates range from £200 + VAT to £750 + VAT (20%)

Employment Tribunal claims for unfair and wrongful dismissal

A 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%).

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.

Timescales

Employment Tribunal proceedings for unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal will (unless settled) last somewhere between six and fifteen 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.

Complaints

We always aim to give the best possible service at all times. Our client testimonials speak for themselves. So do the many strong word of mouth referrals we get.

We don’t get complaints, but we are required by our regulator, the SRA to tell you that if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we provide then you should inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the issue informally.

In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the solicitor who is working on your case to discuss your concerns. We will do our best to resolve any issues and taking remedial steps as required. If you wish to complain about your solicitor and feel awkward discussing your complaint with them you can at any time contact our Complaints Manager Ellie Rowley. If your complaint relates to billing the best port of call in the first instance is either the solicitor working on your case or our Business Team.

If we are unable to informally resolve any issue you might have and wish to make a formal complaint, then you can find our full Complaints Policy here. You have already been provided with a copy of this on opening a file. Please be reassured that making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case or how we treat you.

If you have any serious concerns about the behaviour of the firm or any of our lawyers you can contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint. They will look at your complaint independently. Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you haven’t, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint; and
No more than one year from the date of act/omission or from when you realised there was a problem.

You can contact the Legal Ombudsman by visiting

www.legalombudsman.org.uk, by email at: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk, by phone on: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday or in writing at Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton. WV1 9WJ.