Employment law

Any experts on here ?

What are you needing to know?


I'm no expert though..

Any experts on here ?

If you don't want to post - pm me.

Pm me if you want. Just a quick bit of advice unless you have been employed for 12 months you basically have no rights whatsoever at all

I don't know if you are aware of this but even if your employer is totaly in the wrong you can't get legal aid for employment matters. I know this from first hand experience. So even if you've got a solid case you would still have to fund the lawyer yourself. Yes you would get that back probably if you win the case but it's still a gamble and you need the cash up front.

Your choices though are either get legal insurance, which is expensive. Or join a Union. Mine costs me £11 per month and it means I get access to all the employment lawyers I could ever need. You always learn these things though when it's too late. Everyone thinks it won't happen to them and when it does it's too late.

I don't know if you are aware of this but even if your employer is totaly in the wrong you can't get legal aid for employment matters. I know this from first hand experience. So even if you've got a solid case you would still have to fund the lawyer yourself. Yes you would get that back probably if you win the case but it's still a gamble and you need the cash up front.

Your choices though are either get legal insurance, which is expensive. Or join a Union. Mine costs me £11 per month and it means I get access to all the employment lawyers I could ever need. You always learn these things though when it's too late. Everyone thinks it won't happen to them and when it does it's too late.

Not true at all.

If you have a good case most firms will take it on a conditional fee agreement (CFA) which means no win no fee basically

I don't know if you are aware of this but even if your employer is totaly in the wrong you can't get legal aid for employment matters. I know this from first hand experience. So even if you've got a solid case you would still have to fund the lawyer yourself. Yes you would get that back probably if you win the case but it's still a gamble and you need the cash up front.

Your choices though are either get legal insurance, which is expensive. Or join a Union. Mine costs me £11 per month and it means I get access to all the employment lawyers I could ever need. You always learn these things though when it's too late. Everyone thinks it won't happen to them and when it does it's too late.

Not true at all.

If you have a good case most firms will take it on a conditional fee agreement (CFA) which means no win no fee basically

So you know that first hand do you? You've actually tried it?

In the real world lawyers are not stupid. They know that every single person who walks in to their office will tell them they've got a solid case. Then after putting their time and energy in to the case they find out that there's another side to the story and the case isn't as clear cut as they were told. This is exactly why lawyers want to see some money up front. The other problem they think about is the person in front of them has been sacked and so doesn't have any money.

This is exactly how the lawyers explained it to me and if you want to ring ACAS on 08457 47 47 47 for an independant view they will tell you exactly the same thing, as they did me.

I don't know if you are aware of this but even if your employer is totaly in the wrong you can't get legal aid for employment matters. I know this from first hand experience. So even if you've got a solid case you would still have to fund the lawyer yourself. Yes you would get that back probably if you win the case but it's still a gamble and you need the cash up front.

Your choices though are either get legal insurance, which is expensive. Or join a Union. Mine costs me £11 per month and it means I get access to all the employment lawyers I could ever need. You always learn these things though when it's too late. Everyone thinks it won't happen to them and when it does it's too late.

Not true at all.

If you have a good case most firms will take it on a conditional fee agreement (CFA) which means no win no fee basically

So you know that first hand do you? You've actually tried it?

In the real world lawyers are not stupid. They know that every single person who walks in to their office will tell them they've got a solid case. Then after putting their time and energy in to the case they find out that there's another side to the story and the case isn't as clear cut as they were told. This is exactly why lawyers want to see some money up front. The other problem they think about is the person in front of them has been sacked and so doesn't have any money.

This is exactly how the lawyers explained it to me and if you want to ring ACAS on 08457 47 47 47 for an independant view they will tell you exactly the same thing, as they did me.

No i havent tried it but Im a SOLICITOR and have practiced employment law.

End of argument

Didnt mean to sound harsh bud but the criteria for taking on an employment or any case under a conditional fee is normally "a real prospect of success" which by all standards is probably better than 50/50.

Tell me what happened in your case because it doesnt sound right at all. If you do have Legal Expense Insurance it does help though.

Didnt mean to sound harsh bud but the criteria for taking on an employment or any case under a conditional fee is normally "a real prospect of success" which by all standards is probably better than 50/50.

Tell me what happened in your case because it doesnt sound right at all. If you do have Legal Expense Insurance it does help though.

Not a problem. What we can do now is if I need legal assistance after getting sacked, I'll just walk in to any lawyers office. When he asks me (like they ALL did before) "have you got legal insurance?" And that was before they'd heard anything about the case. I'll just say to him - "No I don't but that's not a problem because DannyboyBluebirds said you'll give me all the legal assistance I could possibly need, all free of charge, and then if we win the case you'll get paid then but if the employer has a better lawyer than you, and win the case then tough titty, you get nothing."

Tidy darts. I'll print this thread off to show him, so that there's no confusion.

ha ha ha ha ha good work, like a get out of jail free?

Tecnically though you are right you cannot get "Legal Aid" but like I said most firms will take it on a CFA (no win no fee) as long as it passes the "Real prospect of success" threshold.

ha ha ha ha ha good work, like a get out of jail free?

Tecnically though you are right you cannot get "Legal Aid" but like I said most firms will take it on a CFA (no win no fee) as long as it passes the "Real prospect of success" threshold.

And I'm just saying that I went in to several offices and without knowing anything about the case, the very first thing they asked was about legal insurance. They ALL told me the same thing - If you are not covered then you'll have to represent yourself. However the tribunal bit is free to set up yourself.

Did you approach the big firms?

Honestly seems seriously harsh, perhaps their policy is to only take on cases with guaranteed payment.

I did a stint in employment at a small high street firm in kent for a year and we took on as many cases as we could.

Did you approach the big firms?

Honestly seems seriously harsh, perhaps their policy is to only take on cases with guaranteed payment.

I did a stint in employment at a small high street firm in kent for a year and we took on as many cases as we could.

I don't know. Thing is you are in the game so you know what is a big name and what isn't. I don't have a clue as to who's who. That's all they would give was 1st half hour free.

It's not only the big things it's also handy to get a bit of advice about smaller issues as well. For instance I recently changed jobs because I was approached and made a far better offer. I would like though a copy of my file from the previous employer. Even though the law says I'm entitled to have this, they have refused to give it to me. There's no way a lawyer would get that file for me free of charge. I mistakenly asked a lawyer the time once and he invoiced me £50. It was a very long and precise answer though to be fair.

1000% you should be given a copy of your contract employment

Thats an immediate breach of the rules and you would win a claim on this by default. Difficult to prove what "loss" you would suffer as a result though

Best thing on that was probably write an email or letter to HR quoting the emplyment regs and they would probably shit a brick and sent you the contract

1000% you should be given a copy of your contract employment

Thats an immediate breach of the rules and you would win a claim on this by default. Difficult to prove what "loss" you would suffer as a result though

I do wonder about some of these laws though. I mean they clearly break the law yet what are you going to do about it? Call the police? No, of course not. Like you said there's no loss but it's still a law break. A lot of these laws you can just choose to ignore because at the end of the day no one is empowered really to do anything about it.

On this one I've asked the Union lawyer to write to them. Hopefully if it comes off them then they'll crap themselves.

Join a union

Basically my employer wants us to complete workbooks on our own time unpaid. He has now said failure to complete them will result in disciplinary action and eventually dismissal. Surely all compulsory training should be paid. Or have I got this wrong?

i dont think it does, although I may well be wrong. depends on what it is but if it's essential for your job (i.e in order to get a license) then without one, you cant do your job therefore they cant hire you maybe?! how long a night realistically will it take you to do these workbooks any how? Loads of people have to study as part of thei rjobs, technically in their own time (myself included)