With employment claims very much on the rise, we can provide employment tribunal support to give you peace of mind should you have a claim made against you.

What is an employment tribunal?

An employment tribunal is a court process for resolving employment law disputes. Once a claim is made there is normally a timetable of orders leading up to a final hearing where a judge will determine whether the claim should be upheld.

What is the process in bringing an employment tribunal claim?

Before an employee can make a claim to an employment tribunal the employee will normally require an Early Conciliation certificate number. Early Conciliation is a process conducted by the independent body called ACAS, who will assign a conciliator who will attempt to see if the parties can reach a mutual agreement.

To start a claim, the employee must present their claim form (ET1) to the tribunal within the relevant time limits. An employee can apply for an extension of time to submit a claim in some circumstances.

Once a claim is made to the tribunal, the employer has an opportunity to provide a defence. Once the defence is served by the employer, tribunals have a wide remit on organising the claim which will eventually be set for a final hearing date.

What fair reasons for dismissal can an employer give?

There are five fair reasons to dismiss an employee:

• Conduct (example: employee punching a colleague)
• Capability (example: employee on long-term sickness who is unlikely to be able to return or someone who is performing badly)
• Redundancy (example: employer cutting a department in size)
• Illegality (example: driver loses their license)
• Some other substantial reason (example: a personality dispute between colleagues whereby all steps have been taken to attempt to resolve it but none have been successful).

ACAS conciliation

Pre-claim conciliation is a compulsory requirement for individuals before they can issue a claim in the employment tribunal. The aim of conciliation is to try to facilitate an early settlement, if possible, before both parties incur the costs of the tribunal process.

Pre-claim conciliation can however be dangerous unless both parties fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of their claim. As experienced tribunal advocates, our specialist team of legal advisers can quickly and astutely recognise the strengths and weaknesses of a claim from the outset and negotiate with these points in mind.

If the parties are unable to reach a settlement, we will continue to advise and represent you to the conclusion of the case, including personally representing your business at the tribunal hearing.

How can our employment solicitors help you?

Our employment solicitors are experienced at representing businesses throughout the tribunal process and we will tackle each stage of the process for you including:

• Submitting your defence
• Collating all relevant documentation and preparing all materials required for the tribunal
• Drafting all other supplementary documentation such as witness statements, schedules of loss and impact statements
• Guiding you on the tribunal process
• Personally representing you at the tribunal, including preliminary and final hearings

Employment tribunal costs

Employment tribunal claims generally follow a timetable between the submission of the claim/defence and final hearing. The tribunal has a wide range of case management powers to organise a case but there are some common steps we often see. An estimate of the costs involved for various steps are set out below:

• Submission of the defence – £1,250 – £2,000 + VAT charged at 20%

This involves a review and assessment of the claims made against the employer and the drafting and submission of a defence.

• The disclosure process £7,50 – £1,500 + VAT charged at 20%

Disclosure is the process where both parties are required to exchange documentation which is relevant to the claim. We will review and prepare the employer disclosure and assess the employee disclosure.

• Exchange of witness statements £1,500 – £3,000 + VAT charged at 20%

Both the employer and employee will give witness evidence at the tribunal, which they will be cross-examined on. The witness evidence will be simultaneously exchanged before the final hearing.

• Final hearing £3,000 – £6,000 + VAT charged at 20%

Most claims settle so very few claims go to a final hearing but for those that do this will often be the most expensive aspect of the claim due to the cost of a barrister to conduct the hearing.

Please note these are estimated costs and actual costs will depend on the complexity of the matter, amount of documentation, number of witnesses and the length of the final hearing as well as many other factors.

Why choose SAS Daniels

As experienced tribunal advocates, we will be advising you throughout the complete process. This means that you get consistency in approach from start to finish and can be reassured that no aspect of your case will go unturned. We also work closely with a number of barristers’ chambers should further assistance be required and will always discuss your available options.

Over the course of the litigation we will also continually advise you on the strengths and weaknesses of your matter and will assist you in your commercial decision making, to enable you to approach it in the most cost-effective and pragmatic way possible.