Any Employment Law Solicitors here? Or anyone who knows about Advice Notes?

[MB34]

I need some advice please.

I've put in a complaint to my company and have been to see a solicitor. The solicitor said the first thing he can do is an Advice Note. We talked about what would happen after the grievance hearing and I think I'll be going ahead with their help.

From what I can gather - the Advice Note will not really tell me anything I don't know apart from the costs of a tribunal and how it would work. I am hoping it will all be resolved before the tribunal stage but am I being naive in thinking this?

Is the Advice Note worth the money (nearly £500) when I could put this money towards their services further down the line?

It might be worth searching for a HR consultant in your area who will be able to provide support throughout the grievance and beyond for the same or less cost. If you google HR consultant "area" (that you live in) someone one will come up

In my experience solicitors tend to only support at the appeal stage and beyond (ET)

Without knowing the background too, it sounds from your OP that you're gearing up for an ET prior to letting the grievance procedure happening. It's good to plan ahead but consider what resolution you want out of raising a grievance.

If you've already put in your grievance I'd be inclined to see what the outcome of that is before spending hundreds on a solicitor tbh. Do you want to tell us what its about?

Has the solicitor explained just how much it costs to take something to tribunal? My OH took his unfair redundancy to tribunal and there were approx £2500 up front court costs without factoring in legal fees.

Thank you for your replies - I don't want to give much away on here as walls may have eyes but it's a discrimination case and the evidence suggests they're also trying to get me to leave.

I know the ETs costs are loads but I'm hoping it won't get that far. (That's one of the things they said would be in the Advice Note)

The solicitor is going to write a without prejudice letter for me after the grievance hearing, I know I could do it myself but I was burned in the past with a sexual harassment case (not the same company) so I want to make sure everything is done right.

Also the 3 month less one day deadline is coming up really soon so I'll be applying to ACAS too.