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Often when a contract of employment is going to end, the parties simply want to walk away from each other and start afresh.  Employers will often offer leaving employees an enhanced package to leave the company in exchange for the employee promising that they will not make a claim against the company.  This arrangement is formalised in a settlement agreement and you are required to seek independent advice to make these agreements legally valid.

Our fees for advising on settlement agreements (sometimes called compromise agreements) cover the following key stages.

Key stages

• an initial call to take details and provide preliminary information;
• providing detailed written advice to you on what the terms of the agreement mean;
• arranging for you to attend our offices to sign the agreement;
• sending all of the documents to your employer;
• providing an invoice and concluding letter to your employer with instructions for completion; and
• concluding correspondence to you.

The estimated total fees depend on the complexity of the agreement but this will be in the range of £350.00 – £500.00 plus VAT.  Your employer should pay these fees. 

This fee assumes that you are happy with the commercial terms of the agreement and that you are content with any arrangements for obtaining a reference after termination. For this reason, it is a good idea for you obtain the agreement from your employer and check this over prior to contacting us.

If we are required to prepare a settlement agreement, make any amendments, negotiate any terms or changes, advise on separate documents (such as non-disclosure agreements and detailed restrictions after termination) and/or you are required to re-affirm the agreement (signing another document after an extended period of garden leave), this is subject to an hourly rate of £195.00 plus VAT (in addition to the fees above). This would be payable by you if your employer will not agree to increase the fees that they will pay.

How long will my matter take?

The timescales for the process above will depend on when we receive instructions and if there is any further work to do as per the paragraph above.  For a simple agreement with no amendments we would usually suggest a turnaround time of 7 days, however if timescales are more pressing we can usually accommodate this.  If the matter becomes more complicated we can suggest timescales on receipt of further instructions.