Employment Law Solicitors that offer to work on a no win no fee basis
What is a ‘no win no fee’ agreement and how do they work?
A no win no fee agreement that your solicitor will not charge you if you lose your case but if you win the solicitor will charge a fee based on a percentage of the tribunal award or settlement sum.
This type of fee arrangement is also known as a contingency fee agreement or a damages based agreement.
How much do I pay in legal fees if I win my case
Employment Solicitors must not charge more than 35% (inclusive of VAT). By way of example, if you win £10,000, the most you should pay is £3,500 plus any expenses you have agreed to pay.
A solicitor may be prepared to charge you less than 35% but think carefully about why that is. Ultimately a solicitor should balance three things:
Risk (how strong is your case)
Value (how much compensation are you realistically likely to be awarded by a tribunal)
Work (how much work is required by the solicitor to prepare your case)
The high value case
The perfect case would be one that is high value, low risk, and simple and easy to prepare. But often, that is not the case.
High value cases are often defended robustly by employers (and their lawyers) spending lots of money and time defending the claim. They often involve multi-day final hearings, with lots of documents and witnesses.
Low value claims
Even if they have a great chance of success, may involve a base level of work for the solicitor that exceeds the likely fee. As such, the solicitor may be unwilling to act for you on a no win no fee basis, because it is uneconomic to do so.
Expenses
The ‘no win no fee’ agreement for employment law solicitors may also allow the solicitor to charge you for expenses incurred acting for you (on top of any fee based on a percentage of your award / settlement payment). Typically the expenses may include travel costs and parking fees the solicitor incurs going to the employment tribunal hearing.
Sometimes a solicitor may only agree to prepare your case on the basis that a barrister will be used to represent you at the final employment tribunal hearing. If that is the case, the cost of a barrister is likely be an significant expense so you should check how much the barrister is likely to cost.
You may wish to consider finding instruct a no win no fee employment solicitor that can represent you at the final hearing without the need for the extra expense of a barrister’s fee. But if you do that, we recommend you choose an experienced no win no fee solicitor that regularly undertakes advocacy at final employment tribunal hearings.
Judgment
In reality, a solicitor makes a judgment, based on his/her appetite for risk, the potential value of the claim, and the complexity and amount of work involved.
In reality, except for very simple wages based claims, most cases will involve at least one day in a final employment tribunal hearing, as well as all the preparations before that (meeting with the client, the witnesses, drafting the claim form, reviewing the client’s documents, the employer’s defence and documents, drafting witness statements, reviewing the employers statements, preparing bundles, schedules of loss, lists of issues, case law summaries and submissions for the final hearing).
Find an employment solicitor near you.
No win no fee employments solicitors for unfair dismissal
If you’ve been dismissed and believe you’ve been treated unfairly a no win no feel solicitor may be prepared to take your case on.
The solicitor will need to assess your case before taking it on.
How do I get a good no win no fee employment solicitor?
1. Get your paperwork together.
The solicitor will need to review all your paper work. So get organised and pull all of your employment documents together. Usually for an unfair dismissal case this will mean:
- Offer Letter
- Employment Contract.
- Invite letter your employer sent you.
- Outcome letter – confirming your dismissal and your employer’s reasons.
- All other relevant emails / letters between you and your employer regarding the dismissal procedure.
- The documents your employer had at the meeting at which it decided to dismiss you, such as an investigation report, witness statements, and documents.
- Last 3 months payslips.
- Form P60 (this is the tax summary your employer gives you at the end of each tax year).
- Form P11D – this will show the taxable value of any contractual benefits.
- Bonus scheme or rules.
- Commission Scheme rules.
- Pension information.
- Details of other benefits options.