Settlement Advice

Undervalued

miss_kau said:

Alfrescodave said:

My son went through a very similar situation and obtained legal advice, which his employer paid for. The legal advisers took full control of the negotiating process and obtained a very generous package for him so I would strongly recommend this route.

Why/how does the employer pay for legal adviser? I'd  have thought you'd need to pay for your own (apologies - I'm a total newbie when it comes to anything HR related)

It is a legal requirement for a formal settlement agreement to be valid that the employee must receive independent legal advice either from a solicitor (who must have special insurance in place) or in some circumstances a specially trained trades union representative. This is to ensure that the employee understands the proposed agreement and that they will be signing away (almost) all right to make any further claim. Without this advice the "agreement" wouldn't be legally binding on the employee (but might still be binding on the employer).

It is customary (but not actually obligatory) for the employer to pay a fixed sum towards such advice. Generally they only pay enough for the solicitor to do the minimum the law requires. If the employee wants the solicitor to negotiate on their behalf they would normally have to pay for that themselves.