For many of us, our jobs are one of the most crucial elements of our lives. They provide us with an income and often form part of a career built up over a number of years.  Therefore, when things go wrong at work, it can be a very stressful experience. Paying for legal advice as well as dealing with the issues at work can make matters worse. This is where a No Win No Fee arrangement comes in!

No Win No Fee is an arrangement where you do not pay legal fees for the work carried out by us if your claim is unsuccessful.  Our No Win No Fee arrangement with you is set out in a formal document known as a Damages Based Agreement (“DBA”).

The advantage of a DBA for you is that you do not immediately incur legal fees and your matter will be dealt with by one of our legal experts without any financial risk to you.

Since 2017 there have been no fees to bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal and, unlike claims in the civil courts where the winning party may be awarded a proportion of their legal costs, it is extremely rare for an Employment Tribunal to make a costs award. Under the DBA, you may, however, still be required to pay disbursements in order for us to conduct your case. An example of disbursements would be if we needed to instruct an expert to produce a specialist report. We will always let you know if this is the case.

We will assess each case on its own facts in order to determine if it has legal merits and the likelihood of success.  Initially, we will ask you to provide us with some specific information about the events that took place at work.

If we believe your case has merits, we will conduct your case on your behalf. Where we are successful in either negotiating a settlement or in securing an award for you at the Employment Tribunal, you will pay us a percentage of your compensation.

We can take on almost any claim on a No Win No Fee basis provided there are reasonable prospects of success. Such claims would include those for Unfair and Wrongful Dismissal as well as Discrimination in respect of any of the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 such as Sexual Harassment and Pregnancy/Maternity Discrimination.

We will require a chronology or timeline of events from you in relation to your issues at work, along with the documents to support your claims. This is primarily because there is a very strict time limit for issuing claims in the Employment Tribunal which is 3 months less a day from the date of dismissal or the last discriminatory act.

We will assess the timeline, the description of events and the documents that you provide in order to determine whether your case meets the legal test(s) for the specific claims involved and whether we can conduct the case on a No Win No Fee basis for you.

We have successfully negotiated many settlements for our clients under No Win No Fee agreements, some examples of which are set out below.

Recently we acted for a client who was subject to sexual harassment by their manager. The evidence comprised late-night texts, invitations to intimate activities and requests for pictures. Our client was, at first, wary of raising this as an issue, out of fear for her job security. However, when she had finally had enough of the harassment, she bravely decided to do something about it and contacted us for a confidential discussion. Within days we were able to implement a strategy to negotiate a swift exit from her employment, whilst making sure she had a reference and was compensated for her experience. We were successfully able to negotiate a settlement which for more than £20,000.00.

Another client for whom we acted on a No Win No Fee basis had secured an unconditional job offer before she unexpectedly found out she was pregnant. Whilst she had no duty to inform her future employer of her early stage of pregnancy, she did so as a gesture of good will. However, upon the potential employer finding out of our client’s pregnancy they withdrew her job offer. We were, again, very quickly able to negotiate a settlement for our client within weeks, where she was compensated for the discrimination both by way of loss of earnings and injury to feelings.

If you would like to see if your claim qualifies for No Win No Fee, please complete the contact form below.