When should you speak to a redundancy solicitor?

Most people contact a solicitor after they have been made redundant, when the dismissal letter is in hand and the options have narrowed. The uncomfortable truth is that redundancy advice is worth most while the process is still running, because that is when the leverage exists.

The warning signs that mean now, not later

• The "restructure" only seems to affect certain people. If everyone at risk happens to be over 50, pregnant, on maternity leave, or recently back from sickness absence, that is not a coincidence and it is not lawful selection.
• Your job is still being done. Someone is being recruited, a cheaper colleague is absorbing your duties, or your role has been renamed with the same job description. A genuine redundancy means the work itself has gone.
• The pool was drawn around you. A selection pool of one, or a pool drawn so narrowly that only you could ever be selected, is one of the oldest tricks in the book and tribunals know it.
• The criteria are vague or scored behind closed doors. "Attitude" and "flexibility" scored by the manager who chose the pool are exactly the criteria a solicitor will probe.
• Consultation feels like a formality. Consultation must be genuine, which means your suggestions have to be considered before decisions are final. If the announcement and the consultation happened in the same meeting, the order was wrong.
• No alternative roles have been mentioned. Your employer must look for suitable alternative employment, and if you are on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave you have a legal right to be offered suitable vacancies first.
• You are being offered a settlement agreement instead of a process. That usually means your employer knows the process would not survive scrutiny. The premium they offer is the price of that risk, and it is negotiable.

Why timing changes the value

A challenge raised during consultation can get criteria rescored, pools redrawn and alternative roles properly considered. The same challenge raised after dismissal is just a claim, with the three months less one day clock already running. Early advice also means the paper trail, the scores, the pool paperwork and the consultation notes, gets requested while it still exists.

What a redundancy solicitor actually does at the early stage

Not a tribunal claim, in most cases. A short advice conversation on whether the redundancy is genuine and the process fair, a script for the consultation meetings, the right questions to ask in writing, and an honest assessment of what your position is worth if it comes to a settlement or a claim.

Redundancy on the horizon?

We can match you with a specialist redundancy solicitor within 24 hours. Free, confidential, no obligation.