Making a claim in the Employment Tribunal

Read our step-by-step guides to help you understand and manage the employment tribunal process.

 Submitting and progressing your employment tribunal claim comes with its own costs, especially if you want expert legal advice and representation in your corner. As well as the running costs of your claim, you will also need to consider having a barrister representing you at the hearing. In this guide, we explore the various funding options that are available so that you can get a head start on your claim.

Insurance

It is worth looking into your existing insurance policies to find out if you have legal expenses cover or ‘before the event’ insurance. If so, we recommend that you contact your insurer to put forward the facts of your case and request approval for you to proceed with their support. If your claim is approved by your provider, you should be afforded the opportunity to nominate your own solicitor to represent you and the insurance provider will pay an agreed rate for the work done on your behalf.  We can then work alongside your insurers to progress your claim without you having to worry about the costs.*

Personally Funded

This is where you fund the claim yourself. Every tribunal claim is unique in its own way. Some require more interim steps, for example, where orders are made by the employer for additional information or documentation. Things can change as the claim progress so it is difficult to be able to provide an accurate estimate of the overall cost of your claim But we can help you as little or as much as you would like us to. You could have us represent you in full, all the way up until the final hearing or you could have our support on hand on a consultancy basis, as and when you need it. The work that we undertake for you will be calculated at an hourly rate and we pride ourselves on providing expert and invaluable advice to help you get the best result from your claim. We will always provide you with an honest assessment of the prospects of success and keep these under review as the claim progresses.

At Bhayani HR & Employment Law we recognise that everyone’s financial circumstances are different and that’s why we will try our best to accommodate your requirements in any way that we can. This can include setting a ‘ceiling figure’ where you are in control of setting an upper limit and once we reach that limit, no further costs will be incurred without your consent.

Trade Union Membership

If you are a member of a trade union, they should be your first port of call for any employment issues that you are having. They may be able to provide you with advice and in some instances, you may also get legal representation provided through them. We often have clients who despite having trade union membership choose to get independent advice from our expert team. Sometimes this is because the trade union representative is unavailable or lacking in expertise.

Damages Based Agreement (No Win No Fee)

After a review of your claim, weighing up the prospects of success and the likely compensation you would receive, we may be able to offer a damages based agreement, also known as a no win no fee agreement. This means that if your claim was unsuccessful, there would be nothing for you to pay, except for the disbursements (fees incurred such as medical reports or barristers’ fees). If your claim is successful, as there is limited provision for costs recovery in the Employment Tribunal, we would recover our costs from your compensation capped at a percentage of your compensation.

*The acceptance of insurance claims is subject always to our acceptance of their terms and conditions, including the rate of pay. If the rate is insufficient to cover the whole cost of the claim, you may be liable to pay outstanding sums.

Contact our expert employment team to find out how we can help with your claim and the best way to fund this.

For advice or for a free assessment contact us today