Services and Fees

 

At A.T. Law our objective is always to provide the best service we possibly can to our clients.

 

This includes providing information on our services and fee estimates. Fee information is always provided in our Engagement Letter, which, on a case-by-case basis, will also set out:-

• What the scope of our work will be and what services are included in the fees quoted;
• We also set out what work is not included within the fee quote provided.
• We include information on key stages and typical timescales in our correspondence with our clients;
• We provide information on the qualifications and experience of our team members so that our clients are aware of who is carrying out the work and who the senior solicitor supervising the case would be.

Hourly Rates

 

The basis for our charges is calculated by reference to the hourly rates of the lawyers involved. The rates for our lawyers range from £275 to £395 (plus VAT and disbursements – see the final section below on “disbursements”). These rates vary depending on the seniority and experience of the relevant lawyer as well as the complexity and value of dispute.

 

We would suggest you speak with us about your case and we can then provide a more accurate rate and fee estimate.

 

In most cases except for straightforward fixed fee work such as settlement agreement advice, we aim to record our time expended on your matter. We will not seek to recover time not appropriately spent and will not charge for any unnecessary duplication from our charges. We will supply records from our time recording system on request. In appropriate cases we may be prepared to consider working on an alternative fee basis. Any such arrangement must be agreed in advance and recorded separately.

 

Before instructing us, clients should check whether their liability to pay legal fees may be covered by a third party, such as through an insurance policy. The third party may wish to have an influence on the choice of solicitor and may not be prepared to cover the fees unless it has been informed at the outset.

 

Alternative Funding

 

You should consider whether funding of your legal expenses in this matter might be covered under any of the following

• household insurance (‘before the event’ insurance);
• other forms of legal expenses insurance e.g. from a car insurance policy;
• credit card insurance;
• trade union benefits; or
• after the event’ insurance.

We do not usually provide legal advice on the above basis but are happy to discuss whether we might consider this on a case-by-case and on an exceptional basis.

 

If it is agreed that a third party, such as a household insurance company, will be responsible for payment of all or some of your fees, you (as the client) will always remain liable for the full amount (or the balance, if appropriate) of the fees if the third party fails to pay or only pays a proportion of our fees.

 

Where it is practicable to do so, we will endeavour to provide estimates of costs (either the total costs or the likely costs to a specified stage) and to review the position on costs at appropriate intervals. Our estimates are subject to review and are not intended to be fixed. They are based on the information we have at the time and on assumptions about the future course of the matter.

 

We usually invoice our interim fees on a monthly basis, unless otherwise agreed. That information will be set out in our engagement letters. Our bills are due for payment within 14 days of their date of issue. We reserve the right to require money on account to cover future fees and when barristers’ fees are to be incurred. We also reserve the right to charge interest and/or to cease to act where any bill remains unpaid.

 

Disputes in the Courts or Tribunals may result in costs orders being made in a client’s favour or against them. The rules differ as between the Courts and Tribunals and costs orders in the Employment Tribunal are only made in limited circumstances (such as unreasonable conduct). In most Tribunal cases clients should therefore assume that they will have to bear their own costs and should always bear in mind the possibility of a costs award against them. However, we will advise further on this aspect of matters in each case. We are not liable or responsible for payment of any such adverse costs orders:- such orders are always the responsibility of the client in each case.

 

In the Courts and Tribunals, if a client loses their case they may have to pay the other party’s costs as well as their own fees and costs. Clients should be aware that even if they win their case, their opponent may not be ordered to pay (or may not be capable of paying) any of their costs. If a client’s opponent becomes insolvent or is legally aided, they may not recover any costs, even if they win the case.

 

Clients will remain liable for their costs in full regardless of any costs orders made against an opponent, but will be credited with any amounts actually received by us under such orders.

 

The prices set out below are intended to give a guide only, to the average cost of bringing or defending unfair and wrongful dismissal claims. Our fees may be more or less depending on the actual and specific details of each claim or defence. They do not include costs for other claims which are usually brought alongside those claims, such as discrimination, harassment or whisteblowing detriment claims. Given all of the above, the prices set out below are unlikely to be the precise price which we end up charging on any given matter.

 

Costs

 

Please be aware that the costs set out below are in relation to your own legal fees. Whilst the award of costs against a losing party in the employment tribunal occurs rarely, such a risk can never be discounted which means that if you ultimately lose your tribunal case may, you or your company may be ordered to pay all or some of the other side’s costs, as well as your own costs payable to us in respect of your fees.

 

At A.T. Law we aim to always be clear on our pricing information.

 

Our price information includes the following:-

• We endeavour to provide a total cost for any particular matter on which instructed or an average range of costs;
• We will explain the basis of our charges and will include details of our hourly and fixed fee rates;
• We will highlight disbursements and other associated costs;
• We will be clear on whether VAT is included.

Employment Tribunals

 

Archin Talpade and the solicitors engaged by A.T. Law have many years of experience conducting employment tribunal litigation on behalf of both employers and employees especially with regard to complex, higher value claims and defending such claims. Such claims include discrimination claims, unfair dismissal claims and whisteblowing claims particularly in defending employers and where reputational risk is a key issue.

 

Archin Talpade will always lead or supervise the work closely in such matters which we have found makes a difference overall to the approach and results, rather than other firms who may offer the services of less qualified staff including paralegals to manage such work. Our approach is to emphasise the best tactical route through litigation in order to aim to save costs and manage risk and reputation as efficiently as might be possible in each set of circumstances.

 

A.T. Law always welcomes the opportunity to provide an initial review of your case and to provide a tailored fee estimate and budget for any form of litigation work. The costs will, naturally vary although some of the factors can include those which we summarise below.

 

No case is ever the same as any other case. Litigation is no different. Our fees are always considered in order to fit each particular circumstance of a case. For example, if the employment tribunal claim involves a simple claim of either unfair or wrongful dismissal with a single issue, with no separate issues requiring resolution before the final hearing, and there are only, say, two witnesses for each party, then that type of litigation will be far less expensive than a claim with many issues, witnesses and a variety of sometimes and often complex issues that need to be determined by a number of preliminary hearings, in addition to a final hearing that can last for many days if not weeks.

 

Key stages

 

The fees set out above for work bringing and defending claims for unfair dismissal cover all of the work in relation to the following key stages of a claim:

• Taking your initial instructions - whether employer or employee - reviewing the available 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 (involving ACAS and known as “Early Conciliation”) where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached
• Preparing the claim or response
• Reviewing and advising  the claim or response from the other party
• Preparing for (and attending) a Preliminary Hearing ( as set out below this stage  is not included in our estimate for bringing or defending a straightforward claim of unfair dismissal)
• 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 a barrister

There may be other stages required or ordered by a Court or Tribunal and the above is an indication of the key stages in summary.

 

We do not always manage the advocacy at final hearings but will occasionally do the advocacy at preliminary hearings. We believe that our clients’ interests are better served by using barristers to undertake advocacy who appear before the employment tribunals far more frequently than our team of employment lawyers.

 

The stages set out above are an indication and, if some of stages above are not required, the fee will be reduced. 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 according to your individual needs.

 

Complicating Factors

 

The variables which have a direct effect on the price of all of the examples of claims below, include:

• The number of issues in dispute
• The volume and number of documents disclosed by both parties
• The number of witnesses involved
• Preliminary issues to be resolved before the final hearing that may also need a separate hearing (such as “Case Management Discussions” or “Preliminary Hearings” to decide points of law
• Having to make or defend applications to amend claims or to provide further information or details about a claim;
• constructive dismissal claims
• The number of days the case is listed for final hearing
• Your aims and objectives
• automatically unfair dismissal on any other ground

Because of the complexity of some cases and numerous and varying factors, it is not possible to provide an estimate of the cost of A.T. Law assisting you until we have full details of the distinctive features and circumstances of your case. We have however sought to provide an idea of likely cost as a starting point and as a guide only.

 

Potential Costs

 

1. Simple Unfair/Wrongful Dismissal Claim

 

By way of example, for a relatively simple unfair/wrongful dismissal claim in an Employment Tribunal (meaning a case which has a final hearing of no more than 2 to 3 days and without any preliminary or other hearings), following the stages referred to above, we would normally expect the costs (whether acting for employer or employee) to be in the range of about £9,000 to £15,000 plus barrister’s fees and plus VAT (currently 20%) were the matter to go the whole way to a full hearing. This figure would include disbursements and barristers’ fees, which would be incurred by us. Disbursements are costs related to the matter that are payable to third parties. We handle the payment of disbursements on behalf of our clients to ensure a smoother process.

 

For more complex matters including complicating factors such as those referred to above, overall costs could be very much more than the figures stated in the preceding paragraph.

 

This estimate is for a single issue case with:-

• no discrimination or automatic unfair dismissal claims;
• no other relevant or complicating factors;
• no preliminary / interim issues or hearings;
• documents of no more than 150 pages

We estimate that the barrister’s fees would range from between £5,000* to £15,000* but these fees would vary depending on the seniority, skills and experience of the barrister instructed, and on the number of days of the hearing and volume of documents.

 

If clients or prospective clients have any queries about our fee arrangements, we would be happy to discuss them.

 

2. Defending or bringing a more complex claim of unfair or wrongful dismissal including TUPE and discrimination claims:

 

For other more complex claims of either unfair or wrongful dismissal in the employment tribunal we estimate our fees would range from £20,000* to £80,000 plus VAT and disbursements and sometimes more plus barrister’s fees that we estimate would range from between £10,000 to £30,000 plus VAT, but these fees would vary depending on the seniority, skills and experience of the barrister instructed and on the number of days of the hearing and volume of documents.

 

3. Multi-Party Actions

 

Where we are asked to either bring or defend claims involving multiple claimants, costs can be higher as each person’s or sub-group’s claims may be slightly different. For such complex claims of either unfair or wrongful dismissal which can include discrimination claims or claims of whisteblowing in the employment tribunal we estimate our fees range from £50,000* to £250,000 (or higher) plus barrister’s fees and VAT and sometimes more.  We estimate that the barrister’s fees would range from between £10,000* to £30,000* plus VAT but these fees would vary depending on the seniority, skills and experience of the barrister and on the number of days of the hearing and volume of documents.

 

It should be noted that the above indicative figures are for the costs of going the whole way through the process, right up to the end of a full hearing (but excluding any appeal). In our experience, most cases settle before this. Where this occurs, the costs will likely be less than the range stated.

 

How long will the matter take?

 

The time that it takes from taking our client’s initial instructions to the final resolution of their matter depends largely on the stage at which the case is resolved. If a settlement is reached during “early” conciliation before the claim proceeds to the Tribunal, the case is likely to take only a few weeks. If the claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, the case could take anywhere up to 12 months or even longer depending on the complexity of the claim. 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.

 

Disbursements, sundry charges and vat

 

All estimated fee amounts and rates in this section are exclusive of disbursements, sundry charges and VAT.

 

We may invoice for disbursements paid or payable on behalf of clients (such as official court filing fees, couriers or company search fees or any other expenses including travel and printing and copying costs). We will not incur significant disbursements on behalf of clients without their prior approval. We also invoice for VAT if applicable, at the prevailing rate, which is usually 20%.