How much?
There are two ways to cover your legal costs:
1. Legal expenses insurance
2. Private funding
Both options maybe available to you, whether you are an employee bringing a claim or an employer defending a claim.
Legal Expenses Insurance
Employees
If you have household contents insurance, then you are likely to have legal expenses insurance. It will be in a clause tucked away deep inside the policy.
Our experience is that the insurance company will be reluctant to pay up on the policy. Even if they agree to pay, they will try to palm you off on their ‘panel firm’.
You have a legal right to choose the solicitor of your choice under regulation 6(1) of The Insurance Companies (Legal Expenses Insurance) Regulations 1990.
Seek our help. We have expertise in securing insurance funding and help you, we will!
Employers
If you do indeed have legal expenses insurance to cover employment claims, our experience tells us the insurance company will still be reluctant to pay up when you claim. If so, seek our help.
Private Funding
Whether you are an employee or employer, you can fund your case privately. At the outset, we will agree an hourly rate for our work and you will be billed for the time we spend on your case. No more, no less.
Costs
We do nothing but employment law.
All matters will be either undertaken by or under the supervision of Paul Sharma. Paul is head of the firm. Paul is a University College London law graduate and a Grade A solicitor (over eight years’ post qualification experience). In fact, Paul has over 20 years’ experience.
The hourly rate for Paul and other Grade A solicitors’ is £420 per hour plus VAT. Our senior solicitor rate is £330 per hour plus VAT and the paralegal rate is £250 per hour plus VAT. A paralegal will not have conduct of a client matter but will work by way of assistance to either a Grade A or senior solicitor.
Legal services attract VAT at 20%.
We will pass on to our client the cost of any other expenditure or disbursements without mark up. Some disbursements attract VAT and others do not. Where disbursement attract VAT, they will also be passed on at cost including VAT. Typically, we do not have other expenditure for a case.
The cost of our legal services vary but there are typical costs for work we do. We provide general advice at no cost if you contact us when looking for employment law solicitors.
When you become a client, we will send to you a ‘care letter’ and open a new case file. Our charges for clients usually cover: consultations with the client and other parties, communication concerning the case, and reviewing and preparing case documents and statements.
Before lodging an Employment Tribunal claim, we are obliged to seek an agreement between the parties. This can be overseen by ACAS. This could take up to six hours work at £395 per hour plus VAT and take up to six weeks.
If after providing you with advice, you instruct us to lodge a claim at the Employment Tribunal, and this will take between a further three to five hours, at a cost of £395 per hour plus VAT. This could take between two and four weeks.
We then deal with the formal response from the other party. This could take between one and two hours and cost £395 per hour plus. This will take between four and six weeks.
Working on all the documents both parties must disclose to each other could take between two and four hours work at £395 per hour plus VAT. This is likely to take around four to six weeks.
Dealing with witness statements could take between three and five hours’ work for each statement at £395 per hour plus VAT. This is likely to take between one and three months.
Preparing for and instructing a barrister to attend a tribunal hearing will take between three and five hours at £395 per hour plus VAT.
If we instruct a barrister to represent you at the hearing, charges are likely to be in the region of £1,750 to £3,000 plus VAT for the first day of the hearing – the brief fee. Subsequent days of the hearing, the barrister’s cost is likely to be one third to a half of the first day – the refresher fee. The barrister’s fees will be passed on to you at cost.
A one-day hearing for an unfair dismissal or breach of contract case can cost up to £16,000 plus VAT and barrister’s fees. The costs can be higher for discrimination claims and lower for breach of contract claims.
Whilst most claims do tend to settle, a case can take six to nine months to come to a hearing and the above costs are disproportionately spent at the early and late stages of the case.
Telephone 0345 430 0145 and talk to us or email: re*******@Sh**************.com