Solicitors willing to help me, no evidence, pay for the service or is it a money pit?

[makoto]

Hello,

I just wanted some advice on going through the solicitor process and taking it further if need be. And just to get some context on everyone else’s opinions if anyone went through the same process as myself previously.
Its due to a recent termination at work I had due to my employer retaliating against me for raising issues about work colleagues for unsafe software product releases.
And since Ive been working at my company for less than a year, my options are very limited on routes I can take. My employer is based in England. And its still within the 3 month limit with ACAS.

Before I sent any email or made any offers to any solicitors, I did speak to ACAS and Protect whilst they were very nice, comforting and offered lots of support, they still suggested I speak with a solicitor first before quitting.

Ive sent emails and responses to a lot of the solicitors in the UK about my issues. The majority of response I got back was down to how I wanted my case to go. We looked at various areas including, Whistleblowing, victimisation etc its a tough case to fight without evidence which I dont have or cant get.

However, I got a few interesting responses. One of them looked at my contract and told me they can do an hour's worth of consultation. It took them a few days to get back to me but they said they wanted to talk to me.
I did get a hint from another solicitor who also was interested in taking my case, and their plan would be to do an hours worth of consultation and write out a legal response to my employer and take it to ACAS. I think it was totally something along the lines of £1500+.

But a lot of the solicitors I spoke with, still said they can look at it but need that expensive hours worth for consultation.
But I dont know if Iam being led into a possible money pit with legal expenses. Are the solicitors just sending scare tactics to scare my employers to negotiate an offer and force a settlement?
And I would also need to think about what would happen if my previous employee just turns around and just says: “No”. And doesnt agree what they did to me.
And where does that leave me after all the above legal cost? Does it go to a work tribunal with me with no evidence to prove anything at the tribunal? More legal costs?

Any help from anyone who has gone through something similar would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all

[ULA]

I have some questions before I can give any advice.

You say your employer is based in England, where are you based?

Was your employment contact based on the law covered by England and Wales. I am assuming it must have been if law firms have been discussing this with you.

You say you were employed for less than a year, did your employer terminate your contract or did you resign?

Either way, it looks like the reason was due to whistleblowing/victimisation can you give more details please?

In the UK you can go to an Employment Tribunal (ET) with a claim having completed Early Conciliation via ACAS either as a litigant in person or represented by a solicitor. If your claim meets the criteria for being accepted, with less than 2 years service, then being represented, even in a simple claim, is likely to cost at a minimum £5,000 and could be considerably more if more complex. Even if you won your claim you could not recover these costs, unless the case met some very strict criteria to warrant a Cost Order being made against the other side. In this respect you would need to weigh up the value of the claim against the cost you would incurr by being represented.

There is sometimes the option of a no win no fee arrangement but these are only entered into if the solicitor believes you have a high prospect of success to recover their fees from any award made to you.

[makoto]

Thanks for the response ULA.

I will try to clear up as much information as possible:

You say your employer is based in England, where are you based?

The contractor company I worked for is based in America but they have offices dotted around the globe as many other companies do. They have a base in England with a registration number and Iam also based in England too.

You say you were employed for less than a year, did your employer terminate your contract or did you resign?

My employer terminated me because of performance issues. But they also didnt give me the chance to defend these claims because they said to me, they already gave me multiple chances for performance feedback which is not true and unfortunately, very sickening to hear them even say that to me.

Either way, it looks like the reason was due to whistleblowing/victimisation can you give more details please?

I met the new manager and to have a meet and greet session and I told this person there were numerous problems within the team such as, team members not doing the work correctly etc.
A week later after having this video call, I got handed my termination notice. Whats makes it really annoying is that none of the HR people advised me about taking a protected disclosure prior to taking this call with the new manager. I was looking up some interesting youtube videos on HR work and it sounds to me, I hit most of the points a company doesnt want so it avoids getting a company into trouble rather than rising up and doing the right thing.

In the UK you can go to an Employment Tribunal (ET) with a claim having completed Early Conciliation via ACAS either as a litigant in person or represented by a solicitor. If your claim meets the criteria for being accepted, with less than 2 years service, then being represented, even in a simple claim, is likely to cost at a minimum £5,000 and could be considerably more if more complex. Even if you won your claim you could not recover these costs, unless the case met some very strict criteria to warrant a Cost Order being made against the other side. In this respect you would need to weigh up the value of the claim against the cost you would incurr by being represented.

There is sometimes the option of a no win no fee arrangement but these are only entered into if the solicitor believes you have a high prospect of success to recover their fees from any award made to you.

This is what scares me and Iam trying to weigh out my options as well. Hence the reason, I need to get as much information before filing for anything or committing to anything.
But Iam really grateful for any information or direction to take this forward.

[ULA]

Thank you for responding to my questions. Under UK law unless you have 2 years' service then your employer can terminate your employment without giving a reason, except in certain circumstances which includes discrimination and probably more relevant to what you are appearing to state is that it was because you were a whistle-blower.

You state that you ".. met the new manager and to have a meet and greet session and I told this person there were numerous problems within the team such as, team members not doing the work correctly etc." In my view this does not meet the criteria for whistleblowing which is set out as being reporting the following:

• a criminal offence, for example fraud
• someone's health and safety is in danger
• risk or actual damage to the environment
• a miscarriage of justice
• the company is breaking the law, for example does not have the right insurance
• you believe someone is covering up wrongdoing

In addition, the disclosure must be in the public interest, which means that it must affect others, for example the general public.

If you believe that what you disclosed to your manager was protected by law as set out above, then in addition you will need proof of this such as confirming it in writing following the meeting. To make a claim at an ET you would need to have evidence to support your claim without it then it is going to be very difficult to prove that this was the reason for your dismissal.

[makoto]

Thanks again ULA for the swift and detailed response. I think the major problem I have is, I dont have access to my work laptop or have access to any of my emails which were stored on the work laptop. Even then, Iam not sure if I have sufficient evidence.

For the list of stuff you mentioned for whistleblowing, I was very keen for the one you mentioned here:
“you believe someone is covering up wrongdoing”
Part of me thinks my manager fired me because there was a coverup related to some of my work colleagues not doing the work correctly and assumes I saw something they didnt want me to speak about.
But like you mention, I have to prove evidence of this for it to be taken seriously? Correct?

[ULA]

Yes, you need to have evidence of the wrongdoing, that you whistle-blew about this and that this was the reason for your dismissal to be able to prove any ET claim. However more importantly the "bar" on wrongdoing is very high and it needs to be in the public interest. If it was merely people were not following procedures or carrying out work incorrectly then that is unlikely to meet this criteria.