It will mean that there’s a proposal to bring your employment to an end on agreed terms. We’ll help you find clear path forward, navigate the ‘unknown unknowns’, and ensure you fully understand your position before making any moves.
As part of the Settlement Agreement, you will be waiving your statutory employment rights. For that waiver to be valid, you need to take independent legal advice - so you know exactly what rights you’re signing away. As your adviser, we are completely independent - we’re in your corner and we act in solely in your best interests.
The value of the settlement should be commensurate to the strength and value of claims that you are signing away. So yes, negotiation is always an option – but it is more of an art than a science. There’ll be times to ‘stick’ and times to ‘twist’.
Generally, both sides want to get the deal done and move onto the next chapter. We aim to facilitate that whilst helping you ensure the deal is right for you.
Settlement Agreements are generally quite lengthy documents and there is often a lot of detail. We’ll make sure you sign with your ‘eyes wide open’ and aim to weed out any hidden nasties before your commit yourself.
Your employer will usually make a contribution to your legal costs, provided you enter into the Settlement Agreement. If the matter is straight forward and the financial terms are agreed, we should be able to stay within their contribution.
If you wish to negotiate, that may increase costs (simply because it will entail more time). But your legal costs will be one of the points of negotiation. And, whilst not guaranteed, often our fees are covered by the employer in full as part of the deal.
Either way, we will always be completely transparent on fees, and there will be no unwelcome surprises.
