It is not possible to provide all of the permutations for claims of this type since the work involved depends on a number of factors including the complexity of the issues, the number of witnesses involved, the volume of documents, whether any other type of claim is also being brought and the forum in which the case in question will be heard (for example a wrongful dismissal claim could be heard in an Employment Tribunal but could also be heard in the High Court).

A standalone claim for a simple unfair dismissal or wrongful dismissal in the Employment Tribunal comprising preparation of an ET1/ET3 (claim and defence forms), disclosure and preparation of documents (assuming these amount to less than 50 pages) together with a single witness statement of less than 10 pages is likely to cost in the region of £8-10,000 (excluding VAT and disbursements – see below) up the date of the liability hearing. This presumes that you provide us with the information required on request and in a reasonable structured way and that the other side runs their claim in a relatively sensible fashion. It also assumes that we conduct meetings in person or by phone/email. This sum excludes any protracted correspondence with the other side, litigation over jurisdictional or preliminary points, any settlement negotiation we may conduct on your behalf, and any external costs such as for Counsel (a barrister).  Similarly it does not include any work on remedy should that become relevant or any appeal against any decision an Employment Tribunal may make.

The price information above excludes VAT charged at 20%. It also excludes disbursements which are other charges such as Counsel’s (barrister) fees, medical expert fees and travel costs. Disbursements are often also subject to VAT at 20%.
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Most Tribunal offices list a hearing date and issue standard directions to the parties (setting out dates for disclosure, the preparation of documents and the exchange of witness statements) as soon as a basic claim has been accepted. Basic claims are typically heard within 6 to 12 months of issue although this can vary depending on a number of factors.

The individuals conducting and/or supervising this work are Partners in Heminsley who qualified as solicitors in 2004, 2005 and 2007 respectively and specialise in work of this nature. Both have worked in the field for considerably longer than this however, with one completing the Bar Vocational Course in 1999 and beginning work at Wragge & Co in 2000 as in-house counsel, and the other having originally become a Member of the Institute of Legal Executives in 2002 and  Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives in 2004.

‍Complaints

‍We are confident of providing a high-quality service in all respects. If, however, you have any queries or concerns about our work, as a law firm regulated by the SRA, we have a complaints procedure to deal with any issues of concern.

Please immediately raise any concerns you may have with us and we will do our best to resolve them. If you would like to make a formal complaint then you can use our internal complaints process which is available on request to all clients. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle any matter we are dealing with for you.

If you do not believe that we have responded to your complaint within a reasonable time, or you are not satisfied with the response, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman. This is an independent complaints body, established under the Legal Services Act 2007 that deals with legal services complaints.

Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman should be made within a year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within a year of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.

Information is available on their website (www.legalombudsman.org.uk) or you can write to them at Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ.

You may also raise any concerns you may have with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems.page).

‍The Firm

‍Heminsley is a partnership between Heminsley Law Limited, Oldham Legal Limited and SJ Stephen Limited (registered in England and Wales under company numbers 10201109, 10925342 and 14305681 respectively) and is a law firm authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) under firm number 647886.  “Heminsley Law” is a trading name/style of Heminsley.

It should be noted that while the owners/directors of the companies in the partnership are not, technically, themselves partners, Heminsley refers to them as ‘non-member partners’ or as simply ‘partners’.  A list of these directors/non-member partners is available for inspection at our registered office, which is at Enterprise House, 656 Chester Road, Birmingham B23 5TE.

VAT registration number: 293 7561 64.