I am passionate about justice. I am passionate about helping people get justice. The first and most important step on the road to justice is appointing the right employment lawyer. This is where far too many people fail. Fortunately, this is where I can help.
"He has an excellent success rate and is very accessible. Damian´s best skills from my perspective are his ability to steer very complex cases and difficult witnesses in the right direction whilst keeping cool."
Senior Partner, Partners Law
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Choosing a good employment lawyer is tough. There are too many firms to choose from and they all claim to be specialists. However, there is a huge difference between the quality of firms. Don´t be fooled by glamorous web-sites, awards or claims about their cases. Many firms are not as good as they would try and convince you. Even within the same firm the quality of lawyer can vary hugely - from the absolutely superb lawyers to the lazy, greedy and incompetent (believe me there are plenty out there).
I have been an employment law specialist for over 20 years, at the highest levels. If I am able to represent you – I will. However, I cannot guarantee to represent everyone who contacts me.
If I represent you I will give you at least an hour´s free advice. If I cannot represent you I will still try and give you free advice and help you find a good employment lawyer.
I admit I am biased - biased in favour of good lawyers, who are committed to representing you to a high standard without charging you a fortune.
If you would like some help finding a good lawyer, or you want to move from your current lawyer, I will be able to help. Either I will give you free advice and represent you, or I will advise you and refer you to another good lawyer.
Important: always make sure you check your household contents insurance. Many policies allow you to claim up to £50,000 of legal fees.
Choosing a good employment lawyer
How do you choose a good employment lawyer? You should ask any lawyer who you are considering hiring the following basic questions:
Does the lawyer deal exclusively with employment law claims?
If they don´t, forget it. Employment law is now a complex and fast moving area of law. You cannot get proper representation with a lawyer who only "dabbles" in it. Your case deserves better.
How long have they been specialising in employment law?
It depends on your budget, but you should have a lawyer who has at least 10 years experience.
How many clients have they represented in Employment Tribunal?
The best lawyers will have represented clients (actually acted as an advocate and presented the client´s case to the Employment Tribunal). Many lawyers simply do not do this. If they have never done this they will be missing valuable experience and your case will suffer as a result of this inexperience.
If your lawyer simply transfers you to a barrister to undertake the advocacy it means there will be an increase in your costs, your barrister will not be able to "get to grips" with your case for some time (if at all) and you will have to pay for two lawyers instead of one.
The best employment lawyers will have represented clients in at least 50-100 ET cases in cases lasting anything from 1-2 days to larger 5-10 day cases.
What are the fees?
Fees vary hugely. However, the maximum you should spend is, £100 plus VAT for a less experienced or non-specialist lawyer and £275 plus VAT for a well-known, very experienced "top of the range" lawyer.
In most firms individual lawyers will have strict billing targets – each lawyer will have a billing target that they to meet. If they do not meet this they will have a problem. As a result, many lawyers see their clients as a way of meeting their billing targets. Many lawyers must bill clients as much as possible in order to meet their target. Their primary purpose is to ensure that they make as much money from you as possible. Ask you lawyer if they have a billing target and what this billing target is.
Some lawyers use the following "tricks of the trade" to bill you as much as possible without advancing your case to the standard you deserve. Here are just a few:
- Getting a junior lawyer to do the work but charging you as if a senior lawyer has done the work. Senior lawyers can ´palm off´ work onto a junior lawyer (sometimes not yet qualified) but charge you as if a senior lawyer has done the work. That simply is not fair. If you are being charged for work of a senior lawyer, that work should be done by a senior lawyer.
- Charging you for work that is never done.
- Over-charging. Lawyers are good at convincing you that their work is incredibly complex and so should be highly paid. The reality is that much work is not complex and should not be charged any more than £275 an hour plus VAT maximum.
- Encouraging you not to settle a case if your opponent offers a fair settlement sum. This is often done by convincing you that your case has better prospects of winning than it actually does. This is done so the lawyer can earn as much as possible from you.
- Encouraging you to settle a case for a figure that is too low. This is often done where a lawyer has billed you but does not want to carry out the harder, more complex work nearer the Employment Tribunal hearing.
- "Brief fee". Where a barrister is instructed you will often be asked to pay a brief fee. This is essentially a double-payment as you will be paying a barrister to read the papers and understand and prepare your case – a fee that you will already have paid your solicitor to do. Why should you pay for two lawyers? It´s like getting a taxi firm to book a taxi for you – and having to pay for two taxis. It makes no sense and leads to an unnecessary increase in costs without any advantage to you.
I can help
If you need help contact me and I will do my best to help you – for free.
Just to be clear:
- I do not want payment for referring you on to another firm or for initial advice I give you;
- I do not receive a commission fee for referring you to another party;
- I will only refer you to an employment lawyer or a firm that specialises in employment law and that has a good reputation;
- I will only refer you to a firm that has specialist knowledge of your area of employment law;
- I will only refer you to a firm that charges reasonable fees.
Why do I offer this service?
I am passionate about justice and ensuring that parties have good quality representation at a fair price. I have seen plenty of parties lose their case because they have instructed a lawyer who is just not good enough or who is just too busy or lazy to represent a client properly. I do not want this to happen to you. There are plenty of good lawyers and I want your case to receive the care and attention it deserves.
Free advice
If you have no funds at all you may want to look at the below to obtain advice. They are very helpful and should be able to assist you.