Recommendation for Employment Law Solicitor Please

[HereBeMonsters]

Hi there, the imminent redundancy is coming up, and I've been told to sign some sort of "you can't sue us" document, and get it counter-signed by a solicitor. I presume just to check all is above board etc.

Anyone got a recommendation for a good employment law solicitor in the Southampton area? I've tried going through the people we used to buy our house, but they had no idea who to recommend.

Thanks in advance.

[Funk]

Benji, you could speak to Biscoes in Portsmouth if that's not too far away? They're one of my clients and do employment law.

http://www.biscoes-law.co.uk/site/services/service...

[Soovy]

HereBeMonsters said:

Hi there, the imminent redundancy is coming up, and I've been told to sign some sort of "you can't sue us" document, and get it counter-signed by a solicitor. I presume just to check all is above board etc.

Anyone got a recommendation for a good employment law solicitor in the Southampton area? I've tried going through the people we used to buy our house, but they had no idea who to recommend.

Thanks in advance.

Sounds like a Compromise Agreement to me. Make sure any non notice period payments are paid tax free for the first £30k.

[HereBeMonsters]

Soovy said:

HereBeMonsters said:

Hi there, the imminent redundancy is coming up, and I've been told to sign some sort of "you can't sue us" document, and get it counter-signed by a solicitor. I presume just to check all is above board etc.

Anyone got a recommendation for a good employment law solicitor in the Southampton area? I've tried going through the people we used to buy our house, but they had no idea who to recommend.

Thanks in advance.

Sounds like a Compromise Agreement to me. Make sure any non notice period payments are paid tax free for the first £30k.

Yeah, that's what it was called. Thanks for the advice - I can't say any more as they're being really hot on the confidentiality.

Gav - cheers for that, will give them a call.

[The Leaper]

Also make sure the compromise agreement covers your legal advice costs about it...it's commonplace for this to be included as, after all, your employer is insisting you complete the document. Cost of the advice depends on the draft document but think £1500-£2000 should be OK.

R.

[edc]

Typical CA fee is £350.

[DavesFlaps]

My former employer agreed to pay up to £500 to cover the costs of mine, which I was told is at the top end of the expected solicitors fees for a basic compromise agreement, however my final bill ended up at over £1000, due to my former employer's incompetence and time wasting. However, they were advised to pay the difference and did indeed capitulate.

[Number 7]

Having been through this twice in 5 years, I can say that my 2 bank employers covered £500 and £800, each plus vat for legals, although the actual bills in each case were around £1K plus vat - and these were non-London solicitors, although there was a deal of negotiation in each case.

I would also draw your attention to the clause on payments for restrictive covenants in this link. Apparently HMRC have been focusing more closely on redundancy payments lately, with a view of treating a much of a payment as possible as being taxable. Having a nominal and taxable consideration for such a covenant (i.e. confidentiality) of, say, £100, means that the entire payment cannot be viewed as consideration for the restrictive covenant.

http://elba.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/empl...

I would also suggest that you agree the form of reference that you require, and have it attached to the CA.
IANAL BTW.
7.

[The Leaper]

To follow up on my post above and the subsequent posts..

I was asked to sign a reasonably straightforward non contentious compromise agreement almost 6 years ago. My employer offered to meet up to £1000 of my costs for legal advice before I gave instructions. The actual cost was £1350 and was met without any fuss by my employer.

R.

[FuzzyLogic]

HereBeMonsters said:

Anyone got a recommendation for a good employment law solicitor in the Southampton area?
Thanks in advance.

I can highly recommend Paris Smith in Southampton.. (1 London Road)

www.parissmith.co.uk

Edited by FuzzyLogic on Thursday 30th September 17:34

[HereBeMonsters]

Thanks for all the replies. They're going to give me £200 toward the cost, and reckon that'll be enough. I queried it with HR today, and they said "every one we've before for everyone else has been less than £200".

[FuzzyLogic]

As has been said above, that will not come close to covering it im afraid. Bearing in mind you may be looking at almost £200/hr for legal assistance, 1 hour will not be enough to go through a compromise agreement in detail, make amendments/suggestions, come back to you/the company etc etc. With that said, don't let it put you off contacting a solicitor - it is a 'compromise' agreement which means they should be prepared to adjust their financial contribution accordingly.

[c8bof]

We pay £250 legal fees for a CA, which covered the last one we did 18 months ago. Is Glasgow going to be cheaper than Southampton for legal fees?

[HereBeMonsters]

FuzzyLogic said:

As has been said above, that will not come close to covering it im afraid. Bearing in mind you may be looking at almost £200/hr for legal assistance, 1 hour will not be enough to go through a compromise agreement in detail, make amendments/suggestions, come back to you/the company etc etc. With that said, don't let it put you off contacting a solicitor - it is a 'compromise' agreement which means they should be prepared to adjust their financial contribution accordingly.

They have made it clear that the only adjustment to the package they are willing to make is to swap their "enhanced" package for the statutory pay.

I have made enquiries with the solicitors recommended above, and am waiting on their quote. Many thanks to all who replied.

[HappySilver]

£250-£500 should be plenty to cover the cost of a solicitor advising you of the implications of signing the compromise agreement. Many people run up a greater cost as they use the solicitor to front the negotiations on settlement with their employer, the fee is not intended to deal with this aspect, it is simply to cover the employer as you cannot state that you did not know what you were signing if a solicitor advised you of the consequences and implications of signing the document. Although some employers will contribute towards a larger fee this is just a matter of goodwill rather than something they should do, if you think about it they are then paying for someone to advise you how to get more money out of them which is an odd situation.

I used to write compromise agreements for a large company, when I left I still had to get a solicitor to advise me of the implications of signing a document that I largely wrote. It was probably the easiest £500 he ever made!

[HappySilver]

Sorry disagree, that may be the requirement of the solicitor, but the aspect the company is paying for is as I state above. Anything else is up to the employee to fund. You normally have a statement that the solicitor has to sign saying what they have advised the employee on implication of signing the compromise agreement, it is normally as simple as this "I confirm that I have given independent legal advice to the Employee as to the effect of this agreement and in particular its effect on the Employee's ability to pursue the Employee's rights before an Employment Tribunal." Indeed I have used that one many hundreds of times each signed by a different solicitor (I'm sure there will have been a few duplications) without issue.

Also, there is absolutely no requirement to have a solicitor on both ends of the agreement either.

[HappySilver]

The employer will normally make it a criteria that the employee has received advice from a solicitor for the agreement to be valid, my statement I refer to above continues " I confirm that I am a Solicitor of the Supreme Court holding a current practising certificate and that I am neither employed by nor acting for <<Employers name>>. I confirm that there is, and was at the time I gave the advice referred to above, in force a contract of insurance or indemnity provided for members of a professional body covering for the risk of a claim by the Employee in respect of any loss arising in consequence of the advice referred to above."

The employer does not have to have a solicitor advise them or sign the document; the document is normally signed by an appropriate officer of the company. Most offer letters leave the company with my (electronic) signature on them and so it is deemed appropriate that I sign termination agreements. If subsequently it was found that the agreement was not valid for a legal reason it would be our loss, I'm paid to make those calls and take legal advice where necessary. But I cannot think of a realistic situation where loss would occur. I've been signing the things for about 20 years for several different blue chips and never had any come back.

Edited by HappySilver on Wednesday 6th October 11:58

[HappySilver]

As I say, it is often covered as a matter of goodwill but the point I was making it is not what the legal costs funded by the employer is intended for. Sometimes I will pay it and sometimes I don't, it depends on the circumstances and what is being asked for. And yes, I am a HR Director. Been taken to tribunal many times only lost once which even the other side's solicitor was surprised about. I do not think tribunals are biased either for employees or employers, I think whoever has the strongest case normally wins.

[HappySilver]

Yep, I've settled a few too.....

[edc]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

There are tribunals I have been to where our Barrister thinks we have a tough case but in one such case I remember going home nice and early at 2.30pm in our favour. I haven't found tribunals to be ourageously unfair although there are times when it seems the bench is giving the claimant an easy ride, letting them ask irrlevant and repeat questions, allowing them a lot more time than the defendant etc. Obviously people should be aware of a typical ACAS concilliated settlement and a Tribunal award. Claimants often go in exceptionally high but need a reality check. I helped one individual negotiate a £28k settlement which was about £5k more than their salary. This was not normal. One which we lost came in at less than 5% of the amount claimed.