Why do I want insurance?
Employment Tribunal claims can cost several, sometimes tens of thousands of pounds in legal fees with awards for unfair dismissal close to £70,000 and awards for discrimination unlimited. The hidden costs and distraction of employment disputes can be enormous.
Of course, the ideal situation is to avoid claims completely. Unfortunately, the desire not to incur fees for professional advice frequently means advice is taken from unqualified sources perceived to be cheaper, or no advice is taken at all. Often the advice is unreliable, unnecessarily cautious or seems to be looking after the rights of the employee, not the employer. The result is you feel paralysed by red tape and employees seemingly able to get away with anything. Worse still, avoidable claims are not avoided and you can end up in Tribunal without cover.
With an ever-increasing claims culture, even the most cautious employer can have a claim land on their desk. What do you do when that happens to you?
Cover you can rely on
For added peace of mind for employers, we can offer you an insurance indemnity policy to cover costs and awards in Employment Tribunal and County and High Court employment claims.
Other legal services providers usually insist that take advice from their call centre staff and that if you don’t have “reasonable prospects” of success at all times the insurer won’t cover you. Since the insurer decides what’s reasonable, the conflict is obvious. And even if you are covered to begin with, cover might be withdrawn if new and adverse evidence arrives midway through a dispute.
With Jackson Osborne, you speak to someone you know and can trust. Unlike other commercial providers and because we are solicitors, we have a professional obligation to look after your interests first and foremost. With our cover, there is no ‘reasonable prospects’ test. It is cover you can rely on.
Take our advice. We take it from there.
And there’s more
The insurance policy includes Compliance and Regulation cover so that if, for example, the H&SE investigate, you and your staff are fully represented.
We’ve also ensured that cover is provided for your senior staff individually in case they should be named or joined in personally in any claim.
If you are unclear as to your current insurance policies, we can recommend insurance intermediaries to provide an existing policy analysis free of charge and ensure a ‘fit’ between your insurance and our specialist advice service.
Unlimited advice and fixed costs
We provide the insurance as an add-on to our services. Start from as little as a few hundred pounds, it can prove invaluable. If you want, you can pay for the insurance separately and ‘pay as you go’ for our advice.
Why not go further? If you want to limit your legal costs without limiting your access to expert advice, we provide a fixed fee package providing unlimited advice for a fixed low monthly cost.
We will tailor our terms to suit you and your business. We can’t tell you what those terms will be without knowing a little more about your business. We can tell you we will be competitive. We are likely to surprise you.
If you would like a quote or just to know more, give us a call.