Compromise Agreement - legal fees

[Lia]

After a few weeks going through 'consultation' on a sham redundancy, after a lengthy negotiation and threatening to take them to a tribunal, I've finally got my employer to verbally agree a Compromise Agreement for an amount that I'm reasonably happy with, and I should be getting the draft written agreement soon.

 

The figure that they've suggested for legal fees seems on the low side - £250 (in Central London)

Does this seem a reasonable/normal sum?

 

Lia

[Lia]

no worries - the barrister that I am planning to use has just emailed back to confirm that the £250 is the normal level

 

Lia

[dx100uk]

they pay the fees anyhow.

 

dx

[Lia]

they pay the fees anyhow.

 

dx

 

Hi DX

thanks for replying - I know they pay the fees, it's just that I was concerned that the cap on legal fees that they'd attempted to set seemed on the low side - but the barrister seems happy with it!

 

Lia

[dx100uk]

ok

no thats std for com ags

 

dx

[papasmurf1cx]

If you do this through ACAS there is no fees at all. All it is, especially as you are 'happy' is to ensure the paperwork is legally tidy.

[becky2585]

We ask for a minimum of 250 plus VAT as a contribution. If there are any significant drafting issues, negotiations or if it's a bad deal, 250 usually won't cover the work if it's a big job. Bearing in mind a solicitors hourly rate, for a junior at around 150 per hour plus VAT, it only covers about 90 minutes of time. A meeting can take that long and there's also all the preparation time involved and the admin necessary to complete the job, so usually time ends up being written off for that amount. So yes, it's low, but perfectly normal and doable.

[Lia]

Thanks Becky - my former employers do use a fairly good solicitors so hopefully it won't take too much work/amending.

It was being familiar with solicitors rates that made me question the amount my employer had offered to pay.

I'm using a direct access barrister, who's already been incredibly helpful with advice to this stage, but he's fine with the £250 - although we've not actually seen the draft document yet (it has actually arrived in my in-box, but I've just got home and decided to deal with it first thing in the morning).

A friend of mine used the same barrister a couple of years ago when made redundant, and couldn't remember the hourly rate charged, only that it had seemed very reasonable at the time

 

 

Lia