Access to Justice: Affordable legal help for employment disputes

Getting help for your employment dispute can be daunting if not impossible, especially if you don’t earn much and also don’t have legal insurance or support from organisations such as trade unions or Citizens Advice.

But getting a fair settlement from your employer shouldn’t be out of reach just because you can’t afford traditional legal fees or because you’ve had your case rejected by another law firm because it’s not worth their while taking it on.

That’s where Monaco Solicitors’ Access to Justice service comes into its own. It was created for people in your situation, to give you affordable, expert help in trying to negotiate a settlement with your employer after they have treated you badly.

In this page, we’ll explain how our Access to Justice service works, what’s included and what’s not, what our fees are and when you pay them, and how – once you have got a settlement agreement – you get it legally approved.

See also our No Win No Fee service page to get a better idea of whether you/your case are likely to be better suited to that service or to our Access to Justice service.

 

What is our Access to Justice service?

Monaco Solicitors is an established and successful specialist employment law firm. As such, we think that justice should be available to all workers and employees who have been treated badly at work – not just to those who can afford it and/or have a really strong legal case.

So we set up our Access to Justice (ATJ for short) service in 2024 to give employment law help to individuals who probably wouldn’t otherwise be able to get such help.

 

Are you eligible for the Access to Justice service?

If you become an Access to Justice client, you will typically earn up to £30,000 a year. You may also be eligible if you earn more than that, depending on the other attributes of your case.

Your case may present certain legal challenges, and/or may not be expected to lead to a very high settlement payment. This can sometimes make it more difficult for you to find legal help, but that’s precisely where our Access to Justice service aims to step in.

Our expert legal team will clarify what kind of case you have and will aim to negotiate a settlement on your behalf with your employer.

We may also offer you our ATJ service if you’ve applied for our No Win No Fee service – see below – but your case doesn’t qualify for it.

Access to Justice vs No Win No Fee: What’s the difference?

Here is a summary of the main differences between our Access to Justice and No Win No Fee services:

Access to Justice (ATJ) service

If you are an ATJ service client, you will typically earn less than £30,000, have a reasonably straightforward legal case (although perhaps not a strong one) , need some help to negotiate with your employer for a settlement and your case will be likely to result in a modest settlement payment.

No Win No Fee (NWNF) service

If we offer you our No Win No Fee service, you will earn over £30,000, have a good but possibly complex legal case against your employer, need significant one-to-one and/or interactive legal support, and have the prospect of winning a good settlement payment.

Fees for the Access to Justice service

The cost of legal help is a key barrier to access to justice for many people. Our ATJ service offers you a clear and affordable fee structure aimed to help you overcome the cost barrier.

Part A) is a one-off Fixed Fee for us to prepare for and attempt negotiations with your employer.

Part B) is an additional modest Success Fee (a type of no win no fee arrangement). This is triggered if we hear back from your employer that they are willing to negotiate. The fee is based on a percentage of any financial settlement payment we help you win from your employer.

Here are the details:

Part A] Our one-off Fixed Fee is £400 + VAT (a total of £480)

This Fixed Fee element is  payable up-front, or you can pay in three monthly instalments of £160. For this payment we will:

• carry out an in-depth review of your case to see how best we can help you with it.
• seek additional information from you where necessary.
• draft and send a ‘without prejudice’ letter to your employer, in order to start negotiations with them for your financial settlement.
• Inform you of your employer’s response and advise you on your next steps.

The fixed fee is a one-off payment and is not repayable to you should we later succeed in negotiating a settlement payment for you. 

The fixed fee may be refundable at our discretion. For example, we will refund the payment if any further information you provide confirms that your case is not in fact suitable for our Access to Justice service.

However, the fixed fee is not refundable after we have accepted your case, drafted the first without prejudice letter, and sent the letter to you for approval.

 

Part B] Our Success Fee is 10% of any settlement amount we obtain for you.

This is payable on conclusion of successful negotiations, when you receive your settlement payment. (See below for what happens if we don’t manage to achieve a settlement for you.)

This 10% fee for successfully negotiating your settlement is significantly less than in a conventional No Win No Fee arrangement.

That’s because we estimate that your settlement payment will be significantly less than in a typical No Win No Fee case. So, it would be unfair to charge you the same % fee as someone whose settlement payout may be many times higher than yours.

The above charges reflect the complexity and value of your claim, its urgency, and the level of expertise we bring to achieving the best possible result for you.

 

Example of Access to Justice fees

Let’s say we manage to negotiate a total payment of £8,000 for you by way of a settlement agreement:

A] You will already have paid Monaco Solicitors’ up front fee:       £480 inc VAT
B] You will be liable to pay us 10% of the £8,000 settlement:        £800 inc VAT

Your total fees payable to Monaco Solicitors will be A] plus B]:  £1,280

So you end up with £6,720 in your pocket (ie £8,000 minus Monaco Solicitors’ fees). In our view, that’s worth having, when you might otherwise have had nothing at all!

 

 

What help do you get with our Access to Justice service?

If we offer you our ATJ service and you decide to accept it, you pay the up-front Fixed Fee of £480 (inc VAT). On receipt of your payment we’ll proceed with your case as already outlined above.

If your employer responds to our initial without prejudice letter indicating that they are willing to negotiate, then we enter the second, ‘no win no fee’ phase, of our ATJ relationship with you. This will include:

• Continuing to negotiate on your behalf if your employer has responded positively to our initial without prejudice letter. Our negotiations will be carried out by whatever means are necessary to further your case, such as additional without prejudice letters and phone calls.
• Helping you draft a Details of Claim for the Employment Tribunal if your employer does not make an offer. We’ll also send it to your employer to put further pressure on them to negotiate.
• Encouraging you to issue a tribunal claim yourself if negotiations stall.
• Sending you weekly email updates about your case, so you’re never left in the dark.
• Giving you clear, practical advice on a realistic settlement amount and how you can help us to get you the best deal. We usually start by requesting a settlement of 4-9 months’ salary (plus any money owed), aiming to settle at around half that amount, as employers nearly always negotiate downwards.

 

What’s not included in the Access to Justice service?

Overall, if your case is very complicated, involves the NHS, police, or a local authority (who don’t usually settle out of court), or if you’ve already issued a tribunal claim, we unfortunately can’t take it on under our Access to Justice service.

Once your case has been accepted for our ATJ service, there are a few things we don’t do:

• We do not communicate with you by phone calls, but only by email.
• We do not review documents/evidence unless we specifically request them.
• We cannot advise you generally about your employment or day-to-day work issues (such as what to say to your boss).
• We are not responsible for time limits on your tribunal claim: you must make sure you don’t miss your tribunal deadlines as they are very strict.
• We do not represent you in any employment tribunal: you will be expected to arrange or conduct any tribunal proceedings yourself.
• We do not handle correspondence on your behalf to/from the employment tribunal.
• We do not offer personal injury advice as part of this service.

 

What happens if a settlement isn’t reached?

Our goal is always to reach a settlement out of court, but if your employer won’t negotiate, or if negotiations stall,  we’ll provide you with a personalised draft Details of Claim to submit as part of your Tribunal Claim Form  to the employment tribunal.

If a settlement isn’t reached, then you will not have to pay any fee, apart from the initial Fixed Fee outlined earlier.

You will handle any tribunal correspondence yourself and either conduct your own tribunal hearing, or arrange for it to be conducted on your behalf. However, you won’t be alone: access to our Monaco AI system will be provided to you and guide you through what to do, with tips on how to do it.

 

 

Settlement agreement signing

If we negotiate a settlement with your employer, they’ll ask you to sign a settlement agreement. You inform them that Monaco Solicitors will review and sign this as your legal adviser.

The fee for this settlement agreement signing service is always paid by your employer directly to us and is entirely separate from the Access to Justice fees outlined above.

Ready to get started?

If you think you/your employment case might be eligible for our Access to Justice (ATJ) service, simply fill out our contact form below with your case details.

If we can offer you the ATJ service, we’ll email you, send you a Client Care Letter and invoice you for the initial Fixed Fee (£480 inclusive of VAT). Once it’s paid, we will send you your first draft legal letter – addressed to your employer – for you to review.

If we can’t offer you the ATJ service, we’ll let you know and also advise you what, if any, alternatives we may be able to offer. Get in touch:

• Via our online Contact Form
• Email communications@monacosolicitors.co.uk
• Phone 020 7717 5259.

We look forward to welcoming you to our Access to Justice service!