As part of the SRA transparency rules which came into force in December 2018, we are required to display certain information about our pricing and services. We also need to let you know what to do if you have a complaint. All work is carried out by Jane Johnson, Solicitor and Director.

Pricing and Services 

 

Wrongful Dismissal

Wrongful dismissal is a claim for breach of contract, usually non-payment of notice pay. An individual can bring a complaint for wrongful dismissal in the Employment Tribunal or the Courts. The Tribunal only has jurisdiction to hear claims up to the value of £25,000, therefore if you are owed more than this, you would need to pursue this via the courts.

To issue a claim at Tribunal requires no fee (for now). We charge on a fixed fee or an hourly rate (of £350 plus VAT), depending on your particular circumstances. The current VAT rate is 20%. A guideline estimate of legal fees involved to issue (or resist) solely a wrongful dismissal claim would be in the region of £5,000-£10,000 plus VAT plus the cost of a barrister and any other expert. This would include preparation of and running the claim (or response) to final Hearing, including dealing with disclosure, witness statements and instructing Counsel. It would not include any costs to settle the claim, should the opportunity arise. A claim would likely be heard within 3-6 months at the Tribunal, although during Covid-19 this is taking much longer.

 

In all likelihood, a wrongful dismissal claim would be tagged onto an unfair dismissal claim.

Unfair Dismissal

An unfair dismissal claim does not arise out of a contractual relationship, like wrongful dismissal, but is a protection that arises under the Employment Rights Act 1996. There are five potentially fair reasons to dismiss an individual. Should the reason not fall into those five, or if the process to dismiss has not been reasonable or fair, then a claim can be brought in the Employment Tribunal.

 

We charge on a fixed fee or an hourly rate (of £350 plus VAT) depending on your particular circumstances, however a guideline estimate of legal fees involved to issue (or resist) a straightforward unfair dismissal claim would be in the region of £10,000 -£15,000 plus VAT plus the cost of a barrister and any other expert. This would include preparation of and running the claim (or response) to final Hearing (including dealing with disclosure, witness statements and instructing Counsel). It would not include any costs to settle the claim, should the opportunity arise. A claim would likely be heard within 6-9 months at the Tribunal although during Covid-19 this is taking much longer.

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Complaints

We are pleased to advise that there have been no complaints in 2018, 2019 or 2020.
 
We aim to provide an excellent service to all clients. However, if you are unhappy about any part of the service or the bill, please let me know in the first instance and we will try and resolve matters between us. If this is not possible, you may raise a complaint in accordance with our written complaints procedure, which is available on request. JLJ Legal will have 8 weeks to resolve this complaint. In order to ensure that your complaint is dealt with fairly we have appointed an external solicitor to independently review any complaints, this is: Daniel Berke of 3D Solicitors Ltd. Queen’s Chambers, 5 John Dalton St. Manchester M2 6ET. 

 

If you are not satisfied with the handling of your complaint, you can complain to the Legal Ombudsman generally within 12 months of receiving a final written response by us. The Ombudsman can be contacted by post at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ, by phone on 0300 555 0333-minicom: 0300 555 1777 or by email to enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. The website for the Legal Ombudsman is at www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

 

If you believe that we have breached one of the SRA principles you can complain to the SRA which can be contacted by email on report@sra.org.uk or by post onThe Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham B1 1RN. 

 

Please note this is not the correct channel for complaints about poor service which must be dealt with as above. 

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