"Absolutely spot on"
Getting you the best possible deal – for you and us, it’s personal
Advice from expert and experienced solicitors- guaranteed
At Quantrills our guarantee means that your settlement agreement will not be handled by a junior or inexperienced solicitor. This means you can be assured that the advice you receive from us is the best possible based on our expertise and our many years of dealing with hundreds of settlement agreements for all types of employees.
We can help you with your Settlement Agreement
Regardless of your job, grade or location we can help you. Our clients include office workers, technicians, managers, executives, directors, teachers, nurses, doctors, solicitors and other professionals.
Same Day Advice
You won’t be kept waiting for our advice – normally we can start helping you on the day you contact us – provided it’s a working day!
Your location is not a problem for us
You don’t need to come and see us – you can live anywhere in the UK or abroad to use Quantrills and benefit from our expertise. In fact for most clients we give our advice by telephone and email using the latest IT and case management software. However, if you live locally you can always come and see us at our offices and meet us in person. We have ample free car parking in front of our offices.
At Quantrills we make sure your settlement agreement is the best possible for you
No uncertainty
We will explain all the terms and discuss with you any that may be unfair or unreasonable, so you will fully understand what sums are being paid to you and under what terms.
Expert negotiators
If possible we will negotiate improvements to the compensation to be paid to you and the settlement agreement terms.
Focussed
We won’t waste time on unimportant points; we concentrate on what’s important legally and for you so that final terms of settlement are reached more quickly with less stress.
Professional
You’ll find our approach is legally thorough, efficient and successful – giving you peace of mind that you are getting the best possible terms of settlement.
Advice and work we will carry out about your settlement agreement
Before you sign your agreement you must be happy that its terms are fair and reasonable as it is not possible to undo its terms once completed. This is why we will take time to:
- understand the reasons and relevant background to the offer and advise you on any possible improvements to the proposed terms of settlement.
- discuss with you the terms of settlement on offer and any concerns you have.
- make sure all contractual or other benefits are correctly dealt with, including any share options, bonus payments, outstanding commission and expense claims.
- advise you about any other clauses that could be included in the agreement, including the provision of an agreed reference or an agreed announcement.
- check the tax treatment of all payments and advising you on how any could be better structured to maximise the amount tax free compensation you receive.
- minimise the amount of income tax you may have to pay.
- agree with you how best to respond to your employer to get you the best possible deal.
Settlement Agreement | Questions and Answers
Employers offer settlement agreements for three main reasons:
Your employer may want to move you out of the business but has no valid reason to dismiss you fairly. Or perhaps your employer wants to shortcut a dismissal procedure it would otherwise have to follow. For example, your performance could be below expectation or your skills no longer fit. Offering a settlement agreement ends your employment on agreed terms without risking you bringing any employment claims.
Your employer may judge you have valid employment claims against it and wants to stop you bringing them or settle existing employment tribunal claims. For your employer it invariably makes commercial sense to settle your potential or actual claims and avoid any uncertainty, time, legal and management costs (and possible bad publicity) involved in dealing with employment claims .
Your employer may be confident it has followed best HR practice in relation to your dismissal but wants the certainty that you will not bring an employment claim against it. This is achieved by using a settlement agreement.
A settlement agreement (until 2013, they used to be called compromise agreements) is a written and legally binding contract between an employer and an employee that settles or compromises all actual or potential claims arising from an employee’s employment or its termination. Also employers sometimes refer to settlement agreements as severance or termination agreements.
Settlement agreements are very common. Employees signing a settlement agreement compromise or settle any employment tribunal claim or court claim they could bring against an employer. Employment claims range from wrongful dismissal and breach of contract to unfair dismissal and discrimination. Reaching an agreement provides certainty and avoids the time, stress and legal costs of bringing an employment claim or defending one. In many cases a settlement agreement allows the employer and employee to part company amicably and on agreed terms that both regard as fair and reasonable.
By instructing the settlement agreement solicitors at Quantrills. We will assess the compensation on offer, what you are or could be entitled to and give you our expert advice. We will make sure the compensation offer is financially sound and the other settlement agreement terms are fair.
For a settlement agreement to be legally effective the employee must obtain independent legal advice. This is the case even if you are entirely happy with the settlement agreement terms. The terms of the agreement mean you are settling all actual or possible employment related claims against your employer and the law requires that you understand the terms and effect of the agreement. If you instruct one of our solicitors we will also make sure the terms of your settlement agreement are fair and reasonable.
As an alternative to using a solicitor, you can get independent legal advice from a suitably certified trade union official.
The specialist employment law solicitors at Quantrills can proceed as quickly as you need us to. We have completed settlement agreements within hours of being contacted but normally you can expect to sign your completed agreement within one or two weeks. Much depends on what issues arise and whether time has to be spent negotiating improved terms of settlement or amendments to the draft agreement. Tactically it can on occasions be sensible to delay signing the settlement agreement to minimise adverse tax consequences.
As part of the agreed terms of settlement, most employers will make a contribution towards or pay all your legal fees, but they are not required to. We will agree our legal fees with you from the outset. In many cases your employer’s contribution will cover all your legal fees. However, the amount of your legal fees depends on what we need to do for you. They will depend on whether everything is agreed quickly so that you can simply sign the settlement agreement or if we need to negotiate improvements to the settlement agreement terms for you (including asking your employer to contribute to your legal costs). We will not waste time and therefore fees raising unimportant points but we will make sure the final settlement agreement terms protect your best interests.
To find out more about the terms and conditions normally included in a settlement agreement please see our Checklist for Negotiating the Terms of Your Settlement Agreement
Expert Settlement Agreement Solicitors
- Fast, same day service
- Advice from experienced solicitors
- Acting for employees from across the UK
- Easy to use Online Forms
- Affordable legal fees
- Practical, realistic advice
Tell us about your Settlement Agreement
Our online form is the easy way to tell us about your Settlement Agreement offer and employment details.
Short of time? Our ‘save and resume’ feature lets you save your answers and complete the form later.
There are no compulsory questions, except for your personal details so we can contact you!
Search our Employee Knowledge Bank for the information you want
To learn more about a specific employment law right or HR topic it’s easy to search our knowledge bank of employee focused briefing notes, checklists and case reports.
