Employment Litigation

Our Employment Law Department can provide advice and assistance to both Employers and Employees with respect to the current Corona Virus crisis: FIND OUT MORE

EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES

Settlement Agreements
Redundancy
Unfair/Wrongful Dismissal
Discrimination Claims
Whistleblowing Claims
Bullying, Harassment or Victimisation in the workplace
Maternity and Paternity Rights
Unlawful Deduction of Wages
Negotiating Settlements
Drafting Contracts

COSTS INVOLVED

Our pricing for bringing and defending Employment Tribunal Claims:

Simple case: £3750-£5750 (excluding VAT& Disbursements such as Barristers Fees)
Medium complexity case: £5750-£9750 (excluding VAT& Disbursements such as Barristers Fees)
High complexity case: £9750-£17500 (excluding VAT& Disbursements such as Barristers Fees)

Factors that could make a case more complex:
If it is necessary to make or defend applications to amend claims or to provide further information about an existing claim
Defending time limit related claims
Defending claims that are brought by litigants in person
Bringing or defending more complex claims, such as discrimination / whistleblowing
Making or defending a costs application
Complex preliminary issues such as whether the claimant is disabled (if this is not agreed by the parties)
The number of witnesses and documents
If it is an automatic unfair dismissal claim e.g. if you are dismissed after blowing the whistle on your employer
Allegations of discrimination which are linked to the dismissal

There will be an additional charge for attending a Tribunal Hearing of £650.00 per day (excluding VAT). Generally, we would allow 1-5 days depending on the complexity of your case.

Disbursements

Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as court fees. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.

Counsel's fees estimated between £750.00 to £1250.00 per day (depending on experience of the advocate) for attending a Tribunal Hearing (including preparation)

Key stages:

The fees set out above cover all of the work in relation to the following key stages of a claim:
Taking your initial instructions, reviewing the papers and advising you on merits and likely compensation (this is likely to be revisited throughout the matter and subject to change)
Entering into pre-claim conciliation where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached;
Preparing claim or response
Reviewing and advising on claim or response from other party
Exploring settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process
Preparing or 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 statements, drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses
Preparing bundle of documents
Reviewing and advising on the other party's witness statements
Agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list
Preparation and attendance at Final Hearing, including instructions to Counsel

The stages set out above are an indication and if some of stages above are not required, we can discuss this with you as appropriate. You may wish to handle the claim yourself and only have our advice in relation to some of the stages. This can also be arranged on your individual needs.

How long will my matter 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 8-12 weeks. If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, your case is likely to take 26-39 weeks. This is just an estimate and we will of course be able to give you a more accurate timescale once we have more information and as the matter progresses.

IR35 EMPLOMENT LAW UPDATE

There has been much said in the legal and HR press about ‘IR35’, and more so recently with changes afoot. So, what is it and why is it important?

Background

This strange sounding abbreviation merely refers to the release number of a budget announcement made in 1999 which was aimed at countering tax avoidance where personal services are provided. It relates to individuals who provide services to another business, often through their own company. In other words, they set up a company in which they are the sole director and shareholder and that company offers its services to another business.

The concept itself is simple – the government wants to avoid losing tax where staff are not regular employees – but defining when it applies has never been a clear and easy process.

There is a burden on public organisations to make a determination on whether staff are employees or not. If so, then tax and national insurance contributions would need to be paid, deducted by the person doing the hiring. This could be a real problem because saying that a staff member is not an employee, and not making the relevant deductions, could be costly if HMRC later said that this was wrong. The hirer would have to make all the back payments; not always, at least in practical terms, being able to recover from the staff member concerned and certainly not in full where employers contributions should have applied.

What has changed?

On 6th April 2020 these rules will extend to larger private business who hire external staff. This covers businesses who meet two of the following criteria:

A) They have an annual turnover of more than £10.2 million.

B) They have a balance sheet total of more than £5.1 million; c) they have more than 50 employees.

If your business fall into this category then it means you now take the responsibility for making a determination on whether each staff member is an employee or not.

What do you need to do?

If you fall within the new categories of business covered by IR35 then you should check the arrangements you have for engaging self-employed staff. If the arrangement is longer term and/or the services are dedicated to your business then it is very likely that you will need to make a determination on the status of that person.

There are several factors which HMRC would take into account when deciding whether external staff are employees, so these are a good starting point for your own determination. These include:

How many organisations the staff member has worked for in, say, the last year. This focuses on whether they work for more than one organisation so they are more likely to be deemed an employee if they are only providing services to you;
The level of control you have over how they work;
How open-ended the contract is;
Whether they receive any fringe benefits;
Other things that suggest that they are running an independent business such as whether they can appoint a substitute person to undertake their role, whether they have their own business insurance, use their own equipment etc

HMRC has created an easy to use tool to check if an arrangement is likely to fall foul of IR35. You can rest assured that it is anonymised, so you can check out a scenario before entering into a contract. Here is a link to it. View Details

Further Information

It is always recommended that you take independent professional advice that is specific to your business.

There is, however, a wealth of more generalised information available publicly and some useful reliable sources are as follows:

Understanding off-payroll working (IR35) View Details

Who the changes apply to:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/april-2020-changes-to-off-payroll-working-for-clients

What the April 2020 changes are:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/april-2020-changes-to-off-payroll-working-for-intermediaries#off-payroll-working-rules

Employment Litigation services