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 full representation: What’s the difference?

Both of these services offer No Win No Fee. Here is a summary of the main differences between them:

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 likely result in a modest settlement payment.

Full representation service

If we offer you our full representation 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.

If we take your case on under our Access to Justice (ATJ) service, you won’t pay anything upfront.

You will only pay us if we secure a settlement for you. When we do this, our fee is a one-third (33% including VAT) success fee, taken from any financial outcome we negotiate for you.

If no settlement is reached, you don’t pay us anything.

This fee reflects the complexity of your case and the expertise involved in negotiating the best possible outcome 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:

Your fee to Monaco Solicitors would be one-third (33%) of the settlement, so £2,640.

So you end up with £5,360 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 will get:

• A named employment lawyer who oversees your case and guides the legal strategy.
• Review and improvement of your Without Prejudice letter, followed by sending the final version to your employer to start negotiations.
• Negotiation of your settlement, aiming to secure the best outcome your case allows.
• Help preparing for Employment Tribunal, if your employer refuses to negotiate, including a draft ‘Details of Claim’ prepared by Monaco AI.
• Answers to any escalated questions within 3 working days, if Monica (our AI assistant) cannot answer something for you.
• Fully online support, using our chatbot and email. No appointments or calls needed.

 

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:

• Have phone calls or meetings with you. This is a fully online service delivered via the chatbot and 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.

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, give you access to Monica, our AI assistant, who will answer questions and help draft a legal letter for our lawyer’s to review before sending on to your employer, and we’ll send you a Client Care Letter.

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!