ET Settlement Advice

TogeatherStronger83

Hello all,

i am looking for some advice to the below:-

I am currently in the middle of an ET claim with my former employer for constructive dismissal and representing myself, we have recently exchanged witness statements and the ET is due to start at the end of Jan.

As a point of note during the initial ACAS conciliation my former employer didn't wish to setlle and made a token offer <£500 for me to drop the case, also following on from the exchange of witness statements I am now convinced that my case is very strong and if I went to an ET I would win (if I was professionally represented).

I have a few questions that I am looking to try and get answered:-

1. At what point could I expect their solicitors to try and settle with myself?
2. Should I initiate a conversation about a settlement?
3. Can I increase my claim amount (from the schedule of loss) to now include legal fees as I don't have the confidence to stand in court and as such will more than likely look to instruct solicitors to represent me a few weeks before the tribunal begins?
4. In my schedule of loss I stated unspecified amounts for stress and emotional hurt, can I now put a figure on these? If so how do I go about advising their solicitors of what I will be looking for?

Thanks in advance for reading.

steampowered

Hi

TogeatherStronger83 wrote: »

1. At what point could I expect their solicitors to try and settle with myself?

There is no fixed answer to this. Sometimes cases settle early, sometimes they settle in the middle, sometimes they settle in the middle of the hearing, sometimes they don't settle at all.

The run-up to trial is a common time to get a settlement offer, just before the legal team has to incur costs preparing for trial, but there is no guarantee of an offer.

2. Should I initiate a conversation about a settlement?

The advice is often to let the employer go first. But there is nothing wrong with making an offer yourself - just be prepared to negotiate it down.

3. Can I increase my claim amount (from the schedule of loss) to now include legal fees as I don't have the confidence to stand in court and as such will more than likely look to instruct solicitors to represent me a few weeks before the tribunal begins?

Legal fees would not go onto your schedule of loss in any event.

You can instruct solicitors, and they can make an application for costs at the hearing itself. However, you should be aware that costs are not commonly awarded in the ET.

4. In my schedule of loss I stated unspecified amounts for stress and emotional hurt, can I now put a figure on these? If so how do I go about advising their solicitors of what I will be looking for?

You'd have to argue over this at the hearing, if you get that far. For settlement purposes, settlement offers are not admissible as evidence anyway so wouldn't affect the hearing. I would just stick to dealing with overall figures in the settlement offer rather than breaking it down between the different parts of your claim.

Takeaway_Addict

TogeatherStronger83 wrote: »

Hello all,

i am looking for some advice to the below:-

I am currently in the middle of an ET claim with my former employer for constructive dismissal and representing myself, we have recently exchanged witness statements and the ET is due to start at the end of Jan.

As a point of note during the initial ACAS conciliation my former employer didn't wish to setlle and made a token offer <£500 for me to drop the case, also following on from the exchange of witness statements I am now convinced that my case is very strong and if I went to an ET I would win (if I was professionally represented).

I have a few questions that I am looking to try and get answered:-

1. At what point could I expect their solicitors to try and settle with myself?
2. Should I initiate a conversation about a settlement?
3. Can I increase my claim amount (from the schedule of loss) to now include legal fees as I don't have the confidence to stand in court and as such will more than likely look to instruct solicitors to represent me a few weeks before the tribunal begins?
4. In my schedule of loss I stated unspecified amounts for stress and emotional hurt, can I now put a figure on these? If so how do I go about advising their solicitors of what I will be looking for?

Thanks in advance for reading.

The employer clearly feels confident as well offering so little, clearly a go away offer.

You do realise constructive dismissal claims are notoriously difficult to win right?

Gavin83

Go on, tell us a little about your case. There are a number of people on here who can advise how strong your case is and how much you are likely to win.

Moonshine14

I would say the employer feels confident in the case they have as usually they offer a higher sum to prevent it going any further. However, without knowing the details we can’t really comment further.

Pricivius

1. At what point could I expect their solicitors to try and settle with myself?


There is no way of telling. It can happen at any time or may not happen at all.

2. Should I initiate a conversation about a settlement?


If you would like to try to settle then initiate a conversation. Put your offer to ACAS.

3. Can I increase my claim amount (from the schedule of loss) to now include legal fees as I don't have the confidence to stand in court and as such will more than likely look to instruct solicitors to represent me a few weeks before the tribunal begins?


Costs are rarely awarded in the ET, and they would not be part of your Schedule of Loss. In the event that you were successful, you would then make an application to the Judge for your costs due to one of the limited reasons that costs are awarded. Research these - you do not just get your costs for winning.

4. In my schedule of loss I stated unspecified amounts for stress and emotional hurt, can I now put a figure on these? If so how do I go about advising their solicitors of what I will be looking for?

I am confused - if you are claiming constructive dismissal, you will have some difficulty claiming stress and emotional hurt. If you are claiming discrimination, you may have more of a chance with an injury to feelings award. Again - research research research.


As others have said, constructive dismissal claims are said to succeed in 3% of cases so the odds are very much stacked against you. Take some advice before you get hit with a costs order from the other side which is a growing possibility...

TogeatherStronger83

Thanks all,

I ended up in this situation as I had been raising issues with regards to my significantly increassed workload over the past several months and even had my concerns recognised by my line manager and informed that they would be looking at how they can reduce it back to what would be considered a more normal working level.

After 2 months and no signs of improvement or any attempt to help elevate the problems I was having, I spoke to my line managers manager and explained that these issues still haven't been resolved even though I my manager accepts that there are problems that need to resolved and and that the stress of the increased workload is really starting to take its toll on me, his response was to ask my line manager to help in the short terming to bear with the company whilst they try to address the issues I was having, 4 weeks later I was informed that there was going to be a restructure and I would need to reapply for new position within the company (although no timeline was given for when this would happen).

about 2 weeks after this and not having slept properly for a good few weeks and feeling ill every Monday morning with the what am I going to be walking into today, I called in to sick and then later informed them that I had been signed off by the Dr with stress anxsity this lasted for about 3 1/2 weeks during which time no one from the company contacted me and the only communication was when I counted them to inform them that I have been signed off for a further week and prescribed medication.

It was after this week that I decided that I could no longer continue and didn't wish to be in a situation where I needed to take medication just to get into work.

The company had clearly made no attempt to rectify the issues I was facing even though they acknowledged that there were issues that needed sorting, they didn't follow there own polices and procedures for staff being off for work related stress in not contacting myself.

ohreally

Did you consider going to grievance?

TogeatherStronger83

ohreally wrote: »

Did you consider going to grievance?

No I didn't as I couldn't face returning and how I would have been treated by both HR and senior managment (having been there at a Jnr management level for several years) I know it wouldn't have been good and lost all trust in the company that I would be treated fairly as my line managers direct boss was the Senior Operations Director of the company.

LilElvis

Perhaps the company did not contact you because they didn't want to risk exacerbating your anxiety issues / be accused of harassing you whilst you were signed off.

Lioness_Twinkletoes

You're going to lose.