Legal costs in Employment Tribunal Claims

In our experience, the legal fees incurred in bringing or defending claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal at the Employment Tribunal fall into the following categories:

Simple case: £4,000 - £8,000 (excluding VAT and disbursements, such as Tribunal, expert or barrister fees)

Medium complexity case: £10,000 - £17,500 (excluding VAT and disbursements, such as Tribunal, expert or barrister fees)

Higher complexity case: £20,000 - £50,000 (excluding VAT and disbursements, such as Tribunal, expert or barrister fees)

The Key stages of these types of tribunal claims usually involve:

• Taking your initial instructions, reviewing the papers and advising you on merits, cost/benefit analysis and likely compensation (which will be revisited throughout the claim as circumstances require)

• 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

• Preparing or considering a schedule of loss

• Preparing for (and attending) a Preliminary Hearing

• Organising and scheduling documents

• Exchanging documents with the other party and agreeing a bundle of documents

• Taking witness statements, drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses

• Preparing witnesses to give evidence

• 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, and possibly a conference with Counsel

• Exploring settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process

You may wish to handle the claim yourself and only have our advice in relation to some of the stages. This can also be discussed and based on your individual needs.

We ordinarily charge on the basis of an hourly rate and the number of hours involved in the matter – currently, our Partner hourly rates in employment law are £415 + VAT

Examples of factors that could make a case more complex and as a result lead to additional costs:

• If it is necessary to make or defend interim applications such as to amend claims or to provide further information about an existing claim

• Dealing with complex preliminary issues such as whether the claim has been made in time

• The number of parties, witnesses and documents

• If it is an automatic unfair dismissal claim e.g. if you allege that you were dismissed as a result of blowing the whistle on your employer, asserting a statutory right, or as a result of a TUPE transfer

• Allegations of discrimination which are linked to the dismissal

Hearing: There will be an additional charge for attending a Tribunal Hearing of £1,500 - £3,000 per day (excluding VAT) depending on the experience of the solicitor. It can take 1-3 days depending on the complexity of your case. You will receive a personalised quote for counsel's fees, but they would typically range between £1,500 to £3,500 per day (excluding VAT) (depending on experience of the barrister) for attending a Tribunal Hearing (including preparation) and is additional to the pricing above.

Disbursements: These are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as tribunal fees, counsel and expert fees. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process. We request disbursements to be paid in advance.

Funding: You should check if you have other funding options available, such as cover under an insurance policy, (eg home contents insurance can have legal expenses insurance) through your membership of a trade union or professional body. This should be checked as soon as you are aware of a potential claim.

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 up to 6 weeks. If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, your case may take up to 2 years.

September 2025

Debt recovery in claims up to the value of £100,000

We have many years of experience in debt recovery matters.

The legal costs of debt recovery work can vary widely, depending principally on whether the debtor is an individual or a business, and whether the debt is disputed. The fee estimates below provided are for undisputed debt claims. We will always discuss the costs with you on receipt of your instructions and provide a full fee estimate before we commence work.

We have a minimum charge of £400 plus VAT.

Illustrative fees for different stages of the debt recovery process:

Pre- action instructions:

Solicitors’ letter only: £400 + VAT

Letter of claim: £700 + VAT

Full pre-action protocol letter before claim: £1,250 + VAT

Issuing a claim and obtaining a default judgement

Sum claimed is between £10,000 and £25,000 - £3,000 plus VAT and disbursements

Sum claimed exceed £25,000 but not £50,000 - £6,000 plus VAT and disbursements

Sum claimed exceeds £50,000 but not £100,000 - £10,000 plus VAT and disbursements

The work undertaken in the examples above includes:

• Taking instructions, reviewing documentation and advising you on your position and options

• Obtaining judgment in default from the Court and requesting payment from the other side

• Receiving payments on your behalf and remitting recoveries to you

Disbursements include court fees. Information relating to court fees is available from HMRC, Form EX50.

Time Scales

Undisputed debt collection normally takes between 3 to 4 months, although this depends on whether it is necessary to issue a claim, how the debtor approaches the matter (including whether they pay promptly), and whether any enforcement action is needed. Time scales are always dependent on the time scales set by the court.

Recovery of your legal costs from the debtor

For claims under £100,000 these are likely to be ‘fixed costs’ which means that even if you are successful, you achieve only a fixed sum of recovery. There is likely to be an element or irrecoverable legal costs. Conversely, if you lose your claim, you would normally only be liable to pay a fixed amount of your opponent’s costs. Under the Court rules, it is very rare that legal costs can be recovered by either party in claims valued at less than £10,000.

Disputed debt claims

For disputed debt claims, our fees are ordinarily based on the hourly rate charges of our lawyers, which range between £415 to £500 + VAT, and the total costs will depend on the amount of work involved in the matter. We do discuss costs in detail with our clients once we have been able to form a view about how much work is likely to be involved in their matter, and we do of course discuss that scope and the estimates with you before we start work on a matter. We will also keep you up to date on costs throughout the matter. That means if there are any changes to the scope of the work required, or the fee estimates provided, you will be informed and provided with a revised estimate.

September 2025