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Money to pay for your Employment Tribunal claim

If you choose not to represent yourself in the Employment Tribunal, you will have to find the money to pay a  representative to handle your case. DO NOT discount doing your case yourself. YOU CAN do your case yourself, which is what Employee Rescue is all about. We give you all the resources and support you need to take your own case through to the employment tribunal . [see About Us]

Should you decide to appoint a lawyer, you can explore paying for your tribunal case in the following ways;

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No Win No Fee Agreements

No win, no fee agreements are provided by solicitors firms, claims assessors and claims management companies. They are usually combined with “After the Event” (ATE) insurance. There are two types of no win, no fee agreements, these are;

• Conditional Fee Agreements
• Damages Based Agreements

Employee Rescue does not offer no win, no fee arrangements. [see About Us]

Conditional Fee Agreements (CFA’s)

CFAs are a type of no win, no fee agreement which you can use to fund your case. Here, the lawyer or claims management company/assessor agrees not to take a fee if your claim fails. They are usually combined with ATE Insurance (see legal insurance below). If your claim is successful, the lawyer will charge an uplift (known as a success fee) in addition to his base costs. Until April 2013, a person who won their case would have the success fee and their ordinary legal costs paid by the losing party.  Since 1 April 2013, this has changed. The success fee is no longer paid by the losing side. This means that if you sign a no win no fee agreement and you win, you will pay the lawyer or claims management firm out of your winnings. The success fee is capped at 25% of damages. Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 you have 14 days to cancel a conditional fee agreement that you have entered into.

Damages Based Agreements (DBA’S)

DBA’s are another type of conditional fee agreement which you can use to fund your case. A DBA would only apply to a lawyer, and not to a claims management firm. Here, your lawyer is not paid if the case is lost, but they can take a percentage of damages if you win. Under the Damages Based Agreements Regulations 2013. The maximum payment that a lawyer can get from your damages is capped at 25% in personal injury claims. If you are successful you will be able to claim back your costs from your employer but you will have to pay any shortfall in your lawyer’s costs and the DBA fee from your damages.

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Legal Insurance

If you lose your case against your employer you will have to pay your employer’s legal costs as well as your own. You can take out legal insurance to cover certain legal costs. There are two types of legal expenses insurance.

• Before the event (BTE) insurance, and
• After the event (ATE) insurance

BTE Insurance

BTE insurance is what you have as part of your home or car insurance so check your policy. BTE insurance insures against the risk of potential future legal costs and liabilities; it is taken out before an actionable event has occurred. When taken out, BTE insurance is often purchased as an add-on to existing insurance policies (usually motor or home insurance) although it is available as a stand-alone product.

ATE Insurance

ATE insurance is designed to pay things like costs to your employer in case you lose, disbursements (the claims management companies or lawyer’s out of pocket expenses). It is taken out after the actionable event has occurred. ATE insurers undertake to pay your employers costs in case you lose the case. If you win your claim, the ATE Insurance will not be used.  Claims managements companies will usually set you up with a loan for the cost of the insurance.

For ATE insurance taken out before 1 April 2013, the insurance premium would be paid by the employer. After 1^st April 2013, ATE insurance can only be used to claim back the cost of clinical negligence expert reports.

Your Trade Union

Trade unions usually provide employment tribunal support and representation to their members. Make sure that your membership subscriptions are up to date and check with your union that you will be represented in your claim. Most unions will not represent you for matters that happened before you were a member.

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Legal Aid

There is no legal aid for employment tribunal cases.