EMPLOYMENT

The UK has a complicated set of employment laws. It regulates many critical areas, from pay, dismissal, and holiday entitlements to disciplinary and grievance proceedings.

There are three crucial pieces of employment legislation in the UK:

• The Employment Rights Act of 1996 and Redundancy Right
• The National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999
• The Equality Act 2010

EMPLOYMENT SERVICE

At Francis Solicitors, we offer:

• No Win No Fee
• Fee Paying Service
• All our fees attract VAT at 20%

No Win No Fee is usually agreed between an individual client and us .

A No Win No Fee agreement enables you to pursue an employment law complaint without having to pay Solicitors fees in advance. This means that if your case is not successful you do not have to pay legal fees incurred by us. Equally you do not have to pay anything upfront and as such there is minimal financial risk to you if we decide to take your case forward on a no win no fee basis.

If you do succeed or settle your claim, we will recover our fees from the settlement or compensation awarded to you.

To confirm whether we can take your cases on a No Win No Fee basis, we must first undertake a review of your case. The Case Review fee is £500.00 plus VAT.

OUR FEES

Within our first consultation with you , we will be able to discuss your case and the likely fees that will be incurred depending on the complexity of the case:

• Simple case – £700.00- £1,800.00 plus VAT
• Medium complexity case – £1,800.00 – £6,000.00 plus VAT
• High complexity case – £6,000.00-£20,000.00 plus VAT

Factors that could make a case be classed as simple:

• Only having to deal with ACAS as the matter settles with their involvement.
• Settling the case by discussion with your employer prior to any claim being made.

FIXED FEES

• Settlement or Compromise Agreement: Will be charged on a fixed fee from £350.00 for up to 2 hours of work. We will always discuss and agree the fee with you before the commencementof work. In majority of cases, the fees are met by the employer.

Factors that could make a case medium or high complexity:

• If it is necessary to defend application or to provide information about an existing claim brought by your employer.
• Making or defending a costs application.
• Complex preliminary issues such as whether you are legally defined as a disable (if this is not agreed by the parties).
• If it an automatic unfair dismissal claims e.g you are dismissed after whistle blowing disclosure.
• Allegation of discrimination which are linked to the dismissal.

DISBURSEMENTS

Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third party. We handle the disbursement on your behalf.

There are currently no court fees for making an employment tribunal case. However there may be disbursements for other matters, depending on your case. This could be, for example, medical records, or experts report. Fees for barristers are classed as disbursement. Most disbursements will have VAT added. Before incurring any disbursement, we shall discuss this with you and what the costs will be.

KEY STAGES

• Taking your initial instruction. Reviewing your documentation and advising you on the merits of your claim.
• Entering into pre-claim conciliation where this mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached.
• Preparing tribunal application
• Reviewing and advising on claim or response from other party
• Explaining settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process
• 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 statement, drafting statements and agreeing their contents
• Preparing bundle of documents
• Reviewing and advising on the other party’s witness statement
• Preparing for the final hearing, including instructions to Counsel

The stages set out above are an indication and if some of the stages above are not required, the fee will be reduced.. You may wish to handle the claim yourself and only have our advice in relation to some of the stages. This can be arranged on your individual needs.

ADDITIONAL FEES

The estimate of fees generally includes all the work necessary within an employment claim. However, it does not include our attendance of the final hearing. There will generally be an additional charge for attending a hearing of £800.00 per day. We would allow 1-3 days, depending on the complexity of your case.

Barrister’s fees estimated between £1,000.00 and £2,500.00 per day (depending on the experience of the Barrister) attending a tribunal hearing (including preparation)

HOW LONG WILL YOUR APPLICATION 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 around 8 weeks .
• If your claim proceeds to a final hearing, your case is likely to take 6-18 months. This is just an estimate and we will of course be able to give you a more accurate timescale once we have more information as the matter
  progresses.

OUR EMPLOYMENT SOLICITORS

• Stephen Asuelime

Stephen obtained his law degree from the University of London in 1986 and went on to qualify as Solicitor in 2001. He was also called to the Nigerian Bar Association in 1987. He has been working in Employment, Personal Injury and Immigration Law since qualifying over 20 years ago. 

Stephen is dedicated to his profession and has a vast experience of dealing with complex cases in employment law. He has successfully adviced and represented individuals and corporate clients in over 1000 cases since qualifying.

• Francis Eigbefoh

Francis is a Director and the Head of the Conveyancing Department at Francis Solicitors Limited.

He graduated in LLB (Hons) degree from the University of London in 1988. He obtained a master’s degree in business law from City of London Polytechnic, which became the London Guildhall University in 1992, which subsequently merged with the University of North London to form the London Metropolitan University in 2002.

Francis then did his Legal Practice Course (LPC) at the University of Westminster in 2004 and qualified as a solicitor in 2006.
Since he qualified as a solicitor, he became a partner at Francis Macfoy Solicitors and then left that practice and formed Francis Solicitors in October 2011.

He has a varied range of clients and his specialisms amongst others include Employment, Immigration, Residential and Commercial Conveyancing which he has been undertaking since 2006.