Doctor Simba, solicitor advocate & director
Your case is supervised by Dr D Simba, a solicitor with over 12 years of post-qualification experience. He holds a Doctor or Science degree in Technology (2001). In addition Dr Simba qualified to be a solicitor advocate (civil and criminal cases) with rights of audience in the highest courts in England & Wales including county courts, the High Court and Court of Appeal. Doctor Simba charges £360 per hour.
Employment Tribunal cases (Range of costs)
Our pricing for bringing and defending Employment Tribunal claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal (inclusive of any VAT)
Simple case £2,000 to £4,000. These are cases likely to be listed for up to one full day of hearing.
Medium complexity case: £4,000 to £8,000 (cases likely to be listed for 2 or 3 days of hearing including case management discussion)
High complexity case including discrimination, harassment and victimisation: £8,000 to £16,000. (cases likely to be listed for 3 to 5 days of hearing including case management discussion and preliminary hearings). Cases lasting over 5 days will cost £16,000 plus £800 to £1,200 for each hearing day. Once a case is listed for hearing then we have to start preparing for it, which includes collating documents, the hearing bundle, drafting witness statements etc.
Many cases are settled without a hearing.
Factors that could make a case more complex:
- If it is necessary to make or defend applications to amend claims or to provide further information about an existing claim
- Defending claims that are brought by litigants in person
- Making or defending a costs application
- Complex preliminary issues such as whether the claimant is disabled (if this is not agreed by the parties)
- The number of witnesses and documents
- If it is an automatic unfair dismissal claim e.g. if you are dismissed after blowing the whistle on your employer
- Allegations of discrimination which are linked to the dismissal
Disbursements
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as court fees and medical reports. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.
Key stages
The fees set out above cover all of the work in relation to the following key stages of a claim:
- Taking your initial instructions, reviewing the papers and advising you on merits and likely compensation (this is likely to be revisited throughout the matter and subject to change)
- Entering into pre-claim conciliation where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached;
- Preparing claim or response
- Reviewing and advising on claim or response from other party
- Exploring settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process
- preparing or considering a schedule of loss
- Preparing for (and attending) a Preliminary Hearing
- Exchanging documents with the other party and agreeing a bundle of documents
- Taking witness statements, drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses
- preparing bundle of documents
- Reviewing and advising on the other party's witness statements
- agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list
- Preparation and attendance at Final Hearing, including instructions to Counsel
The stages set out above are an indication and if some of stages above are not required, the fee will be reduced. You may wish to handle the claim yourself and only have our advice in relation to some of the stages. This can also be arranged on your individual needs.
How long will my matter take?
The time that it takes from taking your initial instructions to the final resolution of your matter depends largely on the stage at which your case is resolved. If a settlement is reached during pre-claim conciliation, your case is likely to take 3-7 weeks. If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, your case is likely to take 3 to 6 months for simple unfair dismissal claims and 6 to 18 months for complex unfair dismissal cases and discrimination claims. This is just an estimate and we will of course be able to give you a more accurate timescale once we have more information and as the matter progresses. extensive training and qualification in architecture in Kenya, Finland, UK and USA gives him deeper insight in property law, planning law, conveyancing and construction law.
COMPLAINTS
We are committed to providing high quality legal advice and client care. However, if there is any aspect of our services that you have received, which you are unhappy about, or if you are unhappy about the bill, please contact fee earner dealing with your or the Managing Director by email at law@justicelaw.biz OR by post to Justice Law Ltd, Solicitors, Claydon House, 1 Edison Road, Aylesbury, Bucks HP19 8TE. We have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints, which is available on written request. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint and aim to provide an initial response to most complaints within 28 days.
If you are not satisfied with our handling of the complaint and/or we have not resolved it within this time, then you can ask the Legal Ombudsman of PO Box 6806 Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ to consider the matter, but only after you have made a formal complaint to us.
Please note that if you wish to take up a complaint with the Legal Ombudsman then you should do so no later than six months after the date of our final written response to your complaint, or within a year of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or you becoming aware of it). From 1 April 2023, the time limits for referring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman will be not later than: one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or one year from the date when the complainant should have realised that there was cause for complaint. The Legal Ombudsman will retain the ability to exercise discretion to extend the one year time limit for specific customers if, on the evidence, it was fair and reasonable to do so.
You have a right to complain about your solicitor and/or a law firm
If you are unhappy with your solicitor or our firm, you have the right to complain. We must tell you how you can complain to us and publish our full complaints procedure.
We must also tell you how you can complain to our regulator (the SRA) and the Legal Ombudsman.
If our firm cannot resolve your complaint
The Legal Ombudsman could help you if you are unhappy about:
- the work your solicitor did for you, including how we communicated with you or how long we took
- your bill.
First you need to tell us (your legal service provider) that you are unhappy with their service.
- We have up to eight weeks to put things right.
- Bring your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman if you are not happy with our final response.
By email to enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
By Telephone to 0300 555 0333
In writing to:
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
If you are concerned about your solicitor's behaviour
The SRA can help you, or take action, when solicitors:
Please see the following text reproduced from the SRA website:
The SRA deals with cases where firms or those the SRA regulates have breached the SRA Principles. Most of the time, complaints about solicitors are about poor service, and therefore should be sent to the Legal Ombudsman. If the Legal Ombudsman thinks your case involves a breach of our Principles, they will refer your case to the SRA. Likewise, if you report a solicitor to the SRA for poor service, the SRA will refer you to the Legal Ombudsman. The SRA does not have the power to award compensation for poor service, or to reduce or refund your legal fees.
However, you should report the matter directly to the SR if you think that we, a firm or anyone regulated by the SRA has breached an SRA Principle.
You can also report a firm or someone regulated by us for non-payment of professional fees (such as agent or expert fees) if
- you have a County Court judgment in respect of the fee, and
- the judgment relates to the practice in connection with providing a legal service.
There are some issues the SRA does not investigate. However, the SRA always consider allegations of dishonesty or discrimination.
If the SRA have closed a firm and you believe that the firm owes you money, you may be able to make an application to the Compensation Fund.
You can complain to the SRA by following this link: https://www.sra.org.uk/home/contact-us/
By phone to 0370 606 2555
In writing to
Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN
18. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
As solicitors we are permitted to put a reasonable limit on our liability to our clients provided that:
- The limit on our liability is not below the minimum level of cover required by the Solicitors’ Indemnity Rules (currently £3,000,000 for companies); and
- We can only limit our liability to the extent that the law allows. In particular, we do not limit our liability for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence.
Our liability to you shall therefore be limited as follows:
- Irrespective of the legal grounds on which any claim against us is made, unless we expressly state a higher amount in our Client Care Letter accompanying these Terms, our liability and loss to you (including any liability for negligence other than for death or personal injury) shall be subject to an aggregate limit of £3 million for all claims and losses resulting from:
- one act error or omission;
- one series of related acts or omissions;
- the same act or omission in a series of related matters or transactions;
- similar acts or omissions in a series of related matters or transactions.
- For the purposes of this clause, a claim against any one or more of our [partners] assistant solicitors, employed barristers, any other members of our staff (whether employees or not) and any company or its employees handling outsourced work as per clause 8 above, arising from one matter or transaction, shall be regarded as a single claim against us and our liability to you shall be limited accordingly.
- We will not be liable for any consequential, special, indirect or exemplary damages, costs or losses or any damages, costs or losses attributable to lost profits or opportunities.