Are you an employer needing an expert employment solicitor to guide you through the minefield of rules and regulations? Do your HR policies and procedures need a refresh? Or perhaps you are facing an Employment Tribunal claim from an employee and need an expert in your corner.
Don’t accept anything less than the best – contact us today for an employment law health check and to find out about our comprehensive fixed-price HR and Employment Law Protection Package.
Our Approach
With all the competing priorities of running a business, it’s easy to see why so many business owners find it difficult to stay on top of ever-changing employment law. Issues left unresolved can often become serious, and then a whole lot of valuable management time and cost is spent fixing the problem.
At Backhouse Solicitors we take a proactive approach, developing long-term relationships with our clients and putting in place the policies and management training necessary to minimise any future problems and protect the business. Where issues arise, our expert solicitors are there to provide practical advice and commercial solutions.
We started out as a specialist employment law practice and our team of employment lawyers help a huge range of businesses every year, from new start-ups to national and international businesses with thousands of employees. Unlike some of the large HR organisations however, we don’t believe in distant call centres, with unqualified staff following a script. You will get to know your Backhouse advisor well and when you need their help you can be reassured that they are properly qualified to give you sensible, commercial advice.
Our Services
Business usually come to us for help in one of two areas:
- Employment Law Compliance – to update their policies and procedures, train their managers and answer day to day questions
- Employment Law Problem Solving – for help and advice when something has gone wrong, or is about to go wrong
In an ideal world, we like to help businesses with their compliance needs first, as that can prevent many of the problems we see every day. In reality we understand that many businesses only realise there is a compliance issue when a problem occurs, so we help fix the problem first and then address the compliance needs to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Employment Law Compliance
Here are some of the common areas where we work with businesses to ensure their policies, procedures, handbooks and employment law knowledge are up to industry standards to prevent problems from happening in the first place. Click on any of the boxes to find out more:
Employment Law Problem Solving
Here are some of the common employment law problem areas we are called in to help with. Click on any of the boxes to find out more:
Fixed Fee Employment Law and HR Packages for Business
We understand that businesses don’t like surprises when it comes to legal fees. To provide complete peace of mind we can offer the HR & Employment Law Protection Package – a range of fixed fee services to help you manage your staff and minimise the chances of future problems occurring.
The HR & Employment Law Protection Package is priced according to your number of employees and can be paid annually or monthly. It is available in Standard and Premium versions to suit the amount of help you need and prices start from as little as £1,080 per year. We only ask you to sign up for an initial 2 year period, with a rolling quarterly contract after that (not the 5 years that many of the national providers insist on).
Both package versions provide you with:
As well as all of these benefits you can also add the following extras:
How much will our services cost outside of a package?
When you ask us for advice, we always give a clear estimate in advance of how much our services are likely to cost, so you avoid any nasty surprises. If the work proves more involved than expected, we will always tell you before charging more fees and you can set cost limits at the outset. We don’t aim to be the cheapest because we employ excellent people and pay them properly to deliver a high level of service, but we always aim to give our clients good value for money.
If you use us regularly we can often tailor an advice package to your needs, so you pay a regular monthly amount. This helps manage cashflow and can help avoid large one-off bills.
The consequences of bad employment law advice
From 6 April 2024 the Employment Tribunal can award employees up to £136,115 in unfair dismissal cases. This consists of a basic award of up to £21,000, plus a compensatory award limited to the lower of £115,115 and one year’s pay. There is no limit on the amount of compensation that can be awarded in discrimination cases.
Most employment law cases don’t end up in an Employment Tribunal as it is costly and time consuming for both parties. It is generally far better if we can negotiate a settlement on your behalf. However, where a case does end up at Tribunal things can be very expensive for a business who is getting bad advice. We often quote the cautionary tale of a company on the other side of one of our cases who didn’t use properly qualified specialists and after a disastrous Tribunal hearing had to pay our client £150,000 to compensate him for their discrimination.
Don’t put your business in this position – contact our expert solicitors today to book a free initial consultation.
Contact us today for help
Tel: 01245 893400
Email: info@backhouse-solicitors.co.uk
Visit: 17 Duke Street, Chelmsford, CM1 1JU
Or send us a message through the Contact Us page on this website.