Funding

Legal Aid is available in some discrimination cases and will firstly be determined by the type of legal case it is and also your financial circumstances. To access legal aid, you will need to show that you meet a means test (your income and capital must be quite low), that your case is strong enough (this is called a merits test) and that your case is covered by legal aid (this is called scope). Most solicitors are not now able to offer Legal Aid for employment matters.

If you have a household insurance (Home or Contents), check that for legal expense insurance because often those policies have cover which will pay for employment claims.

If you are a member of a trade union or other membership organisation check to see if they will pay for a solicitor.

Many employment solicitors offer fixed fees.  Check with the solicitor whether it is a fixed fee or an estimation/quote because that could increase with the work.

Some solicitors offer damages based agreements which some people also call no win, no fee, agreements.  If the solicitor offers one of these then they are agreeing not to charge you if you lose but to deduct a sum from your compensation to cover their fees if they win. However they do not have to offer you such an arrangement and many don’t.

It may be that you come to an agreement to settle any dispute with your employer and the employer wants you to sign a settlement agreement.  Often in those circumstances they will pay for an independent solicitor to advise you on the terms of that agreement.  Make sure you chose a solicitor experienced in such advices and you give them all the facts of your case.