Legal Notices, Complaints, SRA Price Transparency

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Please read the important information below and the terms of our Privacy Policy all of which apply to your use of this website. By using this website you agree to such terms. You should check this page regularly as we may alter or add to such terms from time to time by posting them on this website. Such alterations or additions will apply to any visit or use of this website from the time of such posting.

Incorporated Practice

Abbiss Cadres is the trading name of Abbiss Cadres LLP, a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales, with registered number OC339497. Our registered office is at 14 Austin Friars, 4th Floor (South), London, England, EC2N 2HE. A list of the members of the LLP appears below and is also available at our registered office. The word “partner” is sometimes used on this website to refer to a member of Abbiss Cadres LLP and shall be construed accordingly.

Regulation

Abbiss Cadres LLP is authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”) to undertake the following reserved legal activities: (a) the exercise of a right of audience (b) the conduct of litigation (c) reserved instrument activities (d) probate activities (e) the administration of oaths, and (f) to provide immigration advice and immigration services for the purposes of section 84(2) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Abbiss Cadres is also regulated by the SRA in respect of carrying on other legal activities which fall within section 12 of the Legal Services Act 2007. Any services which fall outside the definition of “legal activities” are not regulated. Abbiss Cadres’ SRA ID is 571596. Details of the SRA’s professional rules detailing their regulation of Abbiss Cadres as a licensed body can be found on the SRA website under “SRA Standards and Regulations” at www.sra.org.uk.

List of Members of the Firm

The members of the firm are:

Guy Abbiss*
Warren Wayne*
Alasdair Friend*

* denotes solicitor

† denotes non-lawyer

Professional Indemnity Insurance

Abbiss Cadres carries professional indemnity insurance covering the “legal activities” in respect of which we are regulated by the SRA. Our insurer is Axis Speciality Europe SE, address Mount Herbert Court, 34 Upper Mount Street, Dublin 2, D02FT72, Ireland. Our PII policy covers all advice given by Abbiss Cadres under our standard terms of business, regardless of where in the world our clients are situated.

Use and Liability

No Reliance

Abbiss Cadres provides the information on this website for general information purposes only and is not intended to be comprehensive. It does not constitute or contain legal advice or any other advice. Abbiss Cadres accepts no responsibility or liability for any loss which may arise from accessing or otherwise relying on any information contained on this site. Abbiss Cadres accepts no responsibility or liability for the content of any website which is linked to, or from, or referred to on this site.

Copyright, etc.

The contents of this website are protected by international copyright laws. Except for information in respect of which another copyright owner is identified, Abbiss Cadres is the owner of all the copyright and database right contained in this website or its content. In respect of such content owned by Abbiss Cadres users may:

(a) read and take copies of information contained on this website for their own personal use;
(b) circulate copies of copies of extracts from of charge to their third parties for their personal use provided that Abbiss Cadres is acknowledged on the copy as its source and the text is not altered in any way and the third party’s attention is drawn to the provisions relating to the use of copyright etc. on this site.

Unless our prior written permission is received, or otherwise authorised by any applicable law, any use of this site or its contents (including by means of a hypertext or other link) except as identified above is prohibited.

Governing Law

The terms on which you use this site are governed by the laws of England and Wales and users submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts in relation to any dispute arising in relation to such use or otherwise in relation to this website.

Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint
No more than six years from the date of act/omission; OR
No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

Complaints Handling Procedure

Our goal is to give the highest levels of service and advice to clients at all times. If for any reason at any time you feel that we have fallen short of that goal, we encourage you to let us know about your concerns immediately.

Where the matter cannot be swiftly remedied to everyone’s satisfaction, the process set out below will be followed with a view to reaching resolution as quickly as possible. Please be assured that there is no charge to you for making a complaint to us or for any stage of the complaints procedure. Making a complaint will not affect how will deal with your affairs.

1. NOTIFICATION OF A FORMAL COMPLAINT

Where an informal approach has not been successful, the first step is for you to put the detail of your complaint in writing, together with the action that you would like to be taken to remedy the situation.

This formal complaint should be sent directly to our Managing Partner, Guy Abbiss, either by email to Guy.Abbiss@abbisscadres.com and Admin@abbisscadres.com or post to Abbiss Cadres LLP, 14 Austin Friars, 4th Floor (South), London, England, EC2N 2HE. We will respond to you within two working days to acknowledge receipt of your complaint. Within five working days of the receipt of your complaint we will respond to you either:

1.1 Agreeing to the course of action suggested by you to remedy the problem and giving details of the steps that will be taken and the timescales involved in implementing the agreed solution; OR

1.2 Inviting you to a meeting (in person or virtual) to discuss the matter in order to try and reach agreement on its resolution; OR

1.3 Where further investigation is required, confirming this and asking for further details from you, if necessary. Ordinarily, we will endeavour to investigate a complaint within ten working days of receipt of such details. If the process is likely to take longer, we will inform you in writing and explain why. When the investigation is completed, we will either provide you with a written response or invite you to meet with the Managing Partner or his designate to discuss the matter further. We will advise you of any findings of the investigation, any conclusions reached, how such conclusions were reached, and any action we propose to take to resolve your complaint.

If we have a meeting, we will write to you within two working days of the meeting to confirm what was discussed, what investigations have been made, any conclusions we reached, how such conclusions were reached, and any action we propose to take to resolve your complaint.

If we are unable to resolve your concerns in this way we may suggest another step or steps in the process in order to resolve your complaint, including the possibility of referring the matter to the Legal Ombudsman if that is your wish.

Meetings may be in person or held virtually or over the telephone.

2. REVIEW BY AN INDEPENDENT LAWYER

Where we consider that it is appropriate to the case and if you agree, we may arrange a review by a lawyer in another firm of any of the issues unresolved through our internal process.

Unless the basis of complaint is a specific technical issue, the reviewing lawyer need not necessarily be an expert and will be chosen on the basis of having the necessary experience to take a balanced view of whether or not your complaint is well-founded and to suggest what action should be taken to remedy the problem.

If we consider this course appropriate, we will write to propose an independent review. Within five working days of receipt of written confirmation from you that you wish your complaint to be reviewed by an independent lawyer, we will identify a third-party lawyer to review the relevant case file, together with your grounds of complaint and any documents created as part of stage 1 of the complaints process (as paragraph 1 above). Where stage 1 of the process has been omitted, we will submit your grounds of complaint together with a summary of matters that we think should be taken into account.

We will give you details of the lawyer that we propose should undertake the review. The review will not go ahead unless you give your express consent to the independent lawyer being given copies of your client file and all other relevant information.

Unless we expressly agree otherwise, the review will be paper-based only. That is, the independent lawyer will not interview you, any partner or member of staff of Abbiss Cadres LLP or any third parties. The timescale for the review will be subject to agreement with the independent lawyer and will be notified to you at the outset. Ordinarily we would expect this to take up to ten working days.

Abbiss Cadres will be solely responsible for the costs of this independent review.

Once the independent lawyer has completed the review you will receive a copy of his/her written report and recommendations. We will write to you within five working days of receipt of the independent lawyer’s report advising you of any action we propose to take to resolve your complaint in light of the findings of the independent review. We will also confirm the process for taking a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman as set out below.

3. WHAT TO DO IF WE CANNOT RESOLVE YOUR COMPLAINT

If matters have not been resolved to your satisfaction within eight weeks of making your complaint to us, you may contact the Legal Ombudsman whether or not we have concluded our own complaints process. The Legal Ombudsman investigates problems about poor service from lawyers. The Legal Ombudsman will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your affairs. Once it is clear that matters cannot be resolved to your satisfaction and you still wish to pursue a complaint then you should contact the Legal Ombudsman:

No more than one year from the date of act or omission being complained about; OR
No more than one year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

AND

Within six months of the date of our final response to your complaint.

The Legal Ombudsman’s address is Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH. Telephone: 0300 555 0333 (between 9.00 to 17.00). Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.

Further information about the service provided by the Legal Ombudsman and how to complain is available at www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

Please note that the Legal Ombudsman will not become involved unless you have already tried to resolve matters using our internal complaints procedure.

4. WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE UNHAPPY WITH OUR BEHAVIOUR

Abbiss Cadres is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (“SRA”). The SRA can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. Visit the SRA website to see how you can raise your concerns with the SRA Please see: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor for more details.

Price Transparency

The information below is provided in compliance with the SRA’s Transparency Rules in relation to the provision of advice and representation to:

employees in relation to the bringing of claims before the Employment Tribunal against an employer for unfair dismissal or wrongful dismissal;
employers in relation to defending claims before the Employment Tribunal brought by an employee for unfair dismissal or wrongful dismissal; and,
the preparation and submission of immigration applications, excluding asylum applications.

Employment

Our team has over 50 years of collective experience in delivering high quality work in all matters relating to employment law.

Anyone working on your Matter will be supervised by either Warren Wayne, Head of Employment, David Widdowson, Senior Consultant or Guy Abbiss, Managing Partner (see profiles of each person on our website) .

The costs of our services are based on hourly rates. Partner and Senior Consultant rates for Employment law matters are £595 per hour plus applicable VAT.

Individuals who may also work on the matter are detailed below.

Associate Solicitors

Associate Solicitor, Jack Colwell, may assist with the work to be carried out under the supervision of a Partner or Senior Consultant. Associate Solicitors have varying expertise depending on the number of years’ experience post qualification they have. Jack qualified as a solicitor in 2022 and has had experience of a wide range of relevant employment matters both since qualification and previously as a trainee solicitor.

The applicable Associate Solicitor rate is £305 per hour plus applicable VAT.

Trainee Solicitors

Trainee solicitors may assist with the work to be carried out under the supervision of a Partner. Trainees are post-graduates who either passed or are in the process of completing the formal qualifications to become a solicitor and who are undergoing a mandatory period of training before final qualification. Shauna Clarke may assist with the work to be carried out under supervision. Shauna graduated in law in 2018 and has prior paralegal experience in large scale litigation. She passed the post-graduate Legal Practice Course in 2019 and stared here solicitor’s training contract with the firm in May 2023 since when she has had exposure to various relevant employment-related matters.

The rates for Trainee Solicitors vary between £205 for trainees during the first year of their training contract and £234 per hour during the second year. Rates are plus applicable VAT.

Price Guidance

Our pricing for bringing and defending claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal is set out below. Where we act on such matters, they generally involve one or more of the complicating factors listed below. Our range of fees is based on this assumption.

Simple case: £40,000 – £70,000 (excluding VAT);
Medium complexity case: £70,000 – £140,000(excluding VAT); or
High complexity case: £140,000 – £700,000 (excluding VAT).

Factors that could make a case more complex:

Complex factual circumstances
Complex issues of law
Applications to the Employment Tribunal necessary while the case is being prepared – for example. requiring additional detail of a claim, to strike out all or part of a claim
Claims involving multiple Claimants or Respondents.
Extensive documents and/or a large number of witnesses
Allegations of discrimination and/or whistleblowing which are linked to the dismissal.
Defending claims brought by litigants in person
Constructive dismissal claims
Claimant employed in a regulated sector
The number of witnesses or potential witnesses and the amount of documentation to consider
If automatic unfair dismissal is relevant (e.g. whistleblowing claims)
Dismissals linked to allegations of discrimination

Disbursements

Disbursements are charged in addition to our own fees. Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as counsel’s fees, or the costs of bulk photocopying. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process. At present no fee is required to bring a claim in the Employment tribunal. Disbursements are charged plus applicable VAT.

Photocopying Charges

Fees for photocopying, which we carry out in house, are charged at the rate of 8p a sheet for A4 black and white copies, where the amount of printing is significant, by which we mean in excess of 100 sheets during a case, we may use an external company or provide you with a quote for the photocopying prior to carrying out the work.

Where we use an external company for photocopying we will attempt to provide an estimate for such charges before they are incurred. For guidance purposes external copying charges will differ based on, page and copying size, and whether the copying is black and white or colour.

Additional charges may also apply if documentation needs to be bound or put in a lever arch file.

Disbursements and expenses are charged plus applicable VAT.

Counsel’s fees

These are fees payable to a barrister where we recommend – and you agree – seeking their advice and representation. Counsel’s fees for work done during a claim are usually charged at an hourly rate – typically these will be between £250 and £1,500 an hour depending on their seniority and the complexity of the case. Where a barrister is instructed to appear at the hearing of the case (or any application made to the Employment Tribunal during the case) a “brief fee” will be charged which is for the first day of a hearing and includes the barrister’s preparation time. This will depend on the complexity of the case and the seniority of the barrister but typically these will be:

£1,000 and £5,000 for a simple 1 day case,
£5,000 to £7,500 for a case of medium complexity with additional “refresher” days being charged at £1,500 to £2,500
£15,000 to £50,000 for a very complex case with a refresher of £2,500 to £5,000 per “refresher” day

All sums above are subject to applicable VAT.

Key Stages

The table below sets out each stage in an unfair dismissal or wrongful dismissal claim. The stages represent a typical case but not all cases run in the same order – for example, settlement discussions (see Stage 4) may take place at any time and may be short or very extensive; a barrister’s advice may be sought (with your agreement) at Stage 1 or may only be required for Stage 5. You may require our advice only on some of the stages and decide to undertake some of the stages yourself. Time scales are the length of time each stage is likely to take. It does not take account of delays in listing cases. This will depend on the length of the case and the geographical region in which the claim is brought. These can vary widely but, as a general indicator, a hearing is likely to take place between 9 months and 2 years from the date the claim is commenced though this may be longer for cases which are highly complex and/or involve a large number of witnesses and documents.

Stage	Timescale
Stage	Timescale	Stage 1 Taking initial instructions, reviewing relevant documents, advising on available claims and merits and likely level of compensation Attending to pre-claim conciliation where this is mandatory to explore possibility of an early settlement Preparing letter of claim/responding to letter of claim Preparing claim/response and filing Reviewing and advising on merits of claim Preparing a schedule of loss/preparing counter-schedule	2 – 12 weeks
Stage 2 Reviewing documents and preparing a list for disclosure Exchanging lists and reviewing documents from employee/employer Agreeing bundle of documents for the hearing Further advice on merits of the claim Preparing for and attending a preliminary hearing	4 – 12 weeks
Stage 3 Meeting to take statements of evidence Preparing statements for each witness; dealing with amendments; exchanging with other side Reviewing other side’s statements and taking instructions Further advice on merits of the claim General correspondence with other side	4 – 12 weeks
Stage 4 Preparing documents for trial Instructing a barrister Preparing list of issues, chronology, updating schedule of loss/counter-schedule of loss Preparing/reviewing statement as to mitigation of loss Further advice on merits Settlement negotiations	4 – 6 weeks
Stage 5 Attending hearing Reporting on outcome	1 -10 days

When issuing a claim in the Employment Tribunal there are no fees to pay, however, it should be noted that the losing party may be ordered to pay the costs of the other side.If some stages are not required the fee will be reduced.

How Long Will My Matter Take?

Overall the time that it takes from taking your initial instructions to the final resolution of your matter depends largely on the stage at which your case is resolved. If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, your case is likely to take up to two years. This is heavily dependent on Employment Tribunal resources (which vary widely geographically) and the length of time that it is estimated necessary for the hearing of the case. We will be able to provide you with a more informed estimate as to timing once we have a clear picture of the nature and extent of a particular case.

VAT

Our fees and disbursements incurred and expenses would be subject to applicable VAT at the rate of 20% (as at June 2023) unless the client is outside the scope of UK VAT.

Immigration

Our team has over 20 years of collective experience in delivering high quality work on business immigration matters for companies, their employees and the employee’s families.

We have three members of the team who may work on your immigration matter. Abbiss Cadres is a partner led firm; anyone working on your matter will be supervised by Guy Abbiss, Managing Partner, for the purposes of SRA rules. Jonathan Martin leads our immigration team and has more than 20 years’ experience in this area.

Please see Guy and Jonathan’s profiles on our website for details of their qualifications and experience. Their hourly rates are as follows.

Guy Abbiss	Managing Partner	£645 + VAT
Jonathan Martin	Senior Consultant	£595 + VAT

Trainee Solicitors

The rates for Trainee Solicitors vary between £205 for trainees during the first year of their training contract and £234 per hour during the second year. Rates are plus applicable VAT.

Immigration Pricing

Immigration Support	Standard costs (range of costs of fixed fee as stated)
Sponsor Licence application	£4,500 – £6,000
Skilled Workers (defined Certificates of Sponsorship)	£2,400 – 2,800
Skilled Workers (undefined Certificate of Sponsorship)	£2,000 – 2,500
Global Business Mobility PBS* application (visa)	£1,800 – £2,300
Sponsored workers extensions (standard)	£2,100
Indefinite Leave to Remain applications by Sponsored Workers	£2,500 – £3,000
Family members of PBS* Migrants (visa)	£900 – 1,200
Other PBS* applications (Graduates, Start-up, Innovator, Global Talent)	From £2,500 to £10,000 (for complex Start-Up, Innovator and Global Talent cases)
Naturalisation application	£3,200
Family members of UK nationals or UK settled individuals	£2000- £3,000
Simple Sponsor Management System updates (e.g. amendments to users of the SMS. Full details of the updates will be included on your invoice narrative)	£250 per update
Sponsor Management System updates (complex – for example, amending sponsored migrant information. Full details of the updates will be included on your invoice narrative)	£350 per update

*Points Based System

The fees above are per individual application and exclude relevant government fees, VAT and expenses. The current surcharge fees for each visa application are as follows:

Sponsor Licence*: Home Office fee
Skilled Workers and GBM visa applications*: Home Office fee (based on the duration of the application) and Immigration Skills Surcharge.

*Please see links for current costs: Home Office Fees | Health Surcharge | Immigration Skill Surcharge

Details of services

We normally charge a fixed fee for the majority of immigration applications by individuals.

Our fees are based on what is likely to be required to complete the matter based on our hourly rates, level of expertise involved, the urgency of the matter and the circumstances of your case.

If the circumstances of your application are more complex – and/or there are unforeseen complications – then the cost may well exceed the fees specified in the table. Any such additional costs will depend on the time spent at the applicable hourly rates.

Services included are:

Taking your instructions;
Providing advice letter and list of supporting documents;
Assisting with the collation of documents in support of the visa application;
Assisting with the visa application;
Providing submissions in support of the application;
General case preparation/management; and
Providing post visa grant advice and assistance.

Key stages and Likely Timescales

The likely timescales depend on (i) the type of application, (ii) your individual circumstances, and (iii) the visa expiry date.

We aim to complete applications in 3 to 6 weeks. Depending on the circumstances, a longer period of time (potentially a few months) may be required for complex applications. We would advise on the anticipated time frame for each individual instruction at the outset.

Please note that the time frame within which the application can be completed is dependent on the timely provision of the relevant information by the client.

Stage	Activity	Timeframe
Stage 1	Obtaining instructions, providing strategic advice and preparation of application.	Factoring in the needs of each client, the completion of stage 1 can take from a few days to a few weeks/months depending on the individual circumstances and the timings of the strategic plan agreed.
Stage 2	Submission of application, consideration and decision-making by the Home Office.	Home Office processing times can vary between 24 hours to more than six months, depending on the type of application, the availability of premium services, the country from which the application is made, and any case-specific complexities. For an indication of the most recent Home Office processing times please click https://www.gov.uk/guidance/visa-decision-waiting-times-applications-outside-the-uk
Stage 3	Post-decision advice.	Once an application has been decided we promptly provide post-decision advice, explaining the next steps.

Disbursements

The fees quoted do not include disbursements. Disbursements are costs related to your matter payable to third parties such as:

Fees charged by the Home Office, which are outlined on the GOV.UK website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visa-regulations-revised-table These can range from a few hundred pounds for a Start Up Visa to nearly £2,500 for Indefinite Leave to Remain applications.
Service charges made by the Home Office’s commercial partners at overseas Visa Application Centres , which are outlined on their individual websites and can be accessed via the GOV.UK website at https://www.gov.uk/find-a-visa-application-centre These can range from less than £100 to have documents sent by courier, through £800 for having priority service, to nearly £2,000 for the gold premium package.
Service charges made by the Home Office’s commercial partner Sopra Steria, which can be accessed on the https://www.ukvcas.co.uk/home-internal (UKVCAS) website or obtained from UKVCAS as an individual quotation based on the service required and can range from document scanning for under £100, through having an appointment at a premium lounge for around £200 to using priority service at around £800;
Fees payable for obtaining official translations of documents produced in languages other than English, as guidance these could range from £10 to £500 depending on the number of documents that need to be translated.

Please note, the list does not include the Immigration Health Surcharge which we will calculate according to your personal circumstances and include among the disbursements payable. Where payable the rate is £624 per year for adults and £470 per year for children and those on Youth Mobility visas.

VAT

Disbursements, but not the application fees or Immigration Health Surcharge, are subject to applicable VAT unless the client is outside the scope of UK VAT. VAT is currently set at 20% (as at June 2023).