Employment Tribunal Legal Advice
We all deserve to have our employment rights respected and the good news is that the majority of companies make a lot of effort to ensure they act in a fair and responsible manner. There are a few, however, that can exploit the people who work for them. If you think you have been treated unlawfully and you feel you have a case to put, you may be able to claim compensation through an employment tribunal.
employment tribunal legal advice
There are several different kinds of unlawful treatment including unfair dismissal, discrimination at work (for example, because of your ethnicity, gender or sexuality) or because there have been unfair deductions made from your pay.
The way that claims are made has changed recently for employment tribunals. You must normally make an attempt through Acas (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) to try and reconcile the issue before it goes to court. If you don’t want to accept reconciliation or it doesn’t work, and you have a basis for a claim, you can then proceed to a legal tribunal.
What Happens in an Employment Tribunal?
There is normally a panel of three people who will listen to both sides of the argument. These include an employment judge who runs the tribunal, a person who represents the side of employers and one who represents the side of employees. In some cases, you only have the judge present to listen to the arguments.
What you need to do as a claimant is get all your evidence together and present it in a coherent way. That means thinking carefully about whether you have a strong enough claim and whether it’s prudent to move to the tribunal stage in the first place. Even if you have a good case, that doesn’t necessarily mean your claim is going to be successful.
One of the things that puts people off going to an employment tribunal is the potential of having to pay the employers costs if the claim fails. In reality, this only happens in a very few cases, often if you have bought a hopeless case or refused to settle when you were made a good offer during conciliation.
Employment Tribunal Advice from Forster Dean Solicitors
There’s no doubt that preparing to go to an employment tribunal is very stressful, no matter how good a case you have. It’s a difficult thing to deal with on your own and the more legal advice and guidance you get the better.
The current system of reconciliation and employment tribunal is designed, hopefully, to get both you and your employer to reach an agreement without going to court.
At Forster Dean, we have experienced teams in place that can help you with all kinds of employment law including tribunals, workplace harassment and discrimination and unfair dismissal and redundancy. You’ll get an initial consultation where you’ll be able to find out whether you have a good case and how to proceed. You can then make a more informed decision about where to go next with any potential claim.
Contact our friendly team today to find out more.