Horizon Solicitors are employment law and HR specialists offering comprehensive legal services and flexible support packages and pricing to help organisations conquer the employment law minefield regardless of size or sector.

Ways of Working Together and Fees

Horizon Solicitors are a boutique employment law and HR specialist firm of Solicitors, with a unique blend of skills and experience making us ideally placed to support organisations regardless of size or sector.

We can offer a broad range of comprehensive services and flexible support packages and pricing options to suit any business, to help you conquer the employment law minefield and free up your time to focus on your business.

Monthly Retainer

If you want the certainty of a monthly budget, and are likely to have an ongoing need for telephone and email advice, we can offer a range of annual retainer packages which work out more cost effectively than hourly rate charging as our support is unlimited. We will get to know your business and offer a contract, policy and process audit to kick start our relationship and ensure we set off along the right track. Retainers can also include writing letters, Tribunal claims and can supplement one of our HR monthly packages for the ultimate proactive support package.

Employment Tribunal claims insurance may also be optionally available.

Pay As You Go

The is the traditional method of charging using an hourly rate for time spent on your matters. You will have complete visibility of our rate and we will regularly update you on the time incurred and agree the amount of work involved and the likely costs upfront.

Fixed Fees

Where possible we will offer our services for a fixed fee. Examples of services that could be provided on this basis include:-

• Auditing contracts, policies and processes
• Drafting or updating employment contracts, policies, staff handbook or collective agreement
• Advising on and drafting Settlement Agreements
• Drafting defences to Employment Tribunal claims (please see further details below)

Horizon Solicitors will be flexible to your needs so we can work with you on whichever basis or a combination of arrangements suits your current business situation. Rest assured we have your best interests at heart so will listen to your feedback and any suggestions you may have for ways of working in the future.

Become a client or subscribe to our mailing list and we will also keep you up to date with employment law newsletters and useful HR topics, debate and information.

The future is bright, bring your employment legal services to a new Horizon !

Defence of Unfair or Wrongful Dismissal Employment Tribunal Claims

This is our pricing structure for defending claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal up to the point of a hearing:-

Simple case: £1,500 – £4,000 (excluding VAT)
Medium complexity case: £4,000 – £7,500 (excluding VAT)
High complexity case: £7,500 – £12,000 (excluding VAT)

Factors that could make a case more complex:

• If it is necessary to defend applications to amend claims or to provide further information about an existing defence
• Defending claims that are brought by litigants in person
• Making or defending a costs application
• Complex preliminary issues such as whether the Claimant is disabled (if this is not agreed by the parties)
• The number of witnesses and documents
• If it is an automatic unfair dismissal claim e.g. if the Claimant alleges they were dismissed after blowing the whistle
• Allegations of discrimination which are linked to the dismissal

There will be an additional charge for attending a Tribunal Hearing of £1,250 per day (excluding VAT). Generally, we would allow 1-3 days depending on the complexity of the case.

Disbursements

Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as court fees. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.

We would not anticipate there being any disbursements payable in these types of cases other than barrister’s fees if we are unable to attend the hearing ourselves, or you want us to instruct a barrister, estimated at between £1,750 to £3,000 per day (excluding VAT) (depending on experience of the advocate) for attending a Tribunal Hearing (including preparation) and then from £500 to £1,250 (excluding VAT) for each day thereafter for the same hearing (this is called a refresher).

Key stages

The fees set out above cover all of the work in relation to the following key stages of a claim:-

• Taking your initial instructions, reviewing the 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 where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached
• Preparing defence
• Exploring settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process
• Reviewing the schedule of loss
• Preparing for (and attending) a Preliminary Hearing
• Exchanging documents with the Claimant 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 Claimant’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

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

How long will the matter take?

The time that it takes from taking your initial instructions to the final resolution of the matter depends largely on the stage at which the case is resolved. If a settlement is reached during pre-claim conciliation, the case is likely to take 3-6 weeks. If the claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, it is likely to take 4-8 months. 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.