Settlement Agreements

There may be sound reasons for an employee or senior executive leaving – perhaps good terms, or maybe they are not performing, there is a misconduct issue, a potentially disruptive redundancy situation, or the working relationship has simply broken down. Well drafted Settlement Agreements will give your business the best protection possible at a fraction of the cost and time to deal with a dispute.

Even a fair and carefully arranged termination process can take many different paths and many weeks to complete. Sometimes it is better not to leave it to chance. Settlement agreements provide an alternative. By signing, your employee waives their legal right to go to an Employment Tribunal or court. Your employee must obtain legal advice from a solicitor for the Settlement Agreement to be binding.

If you are making a considerable exit payment, you will want to make sure there is no comeback. You will want a clean break and your business protected.

When we draft a robust settlement agreement, you will have the assurance and peace of mind that every detail is covered. We won’t provide you with an off-the-shelf template and leave you to fill in the blanks.

Protecting your business

We will listen to what you need and use our experience to provide you with an agreement tailored to your exact situation. We will help you to make the offer to your employee or executive, and provide you with guidance on negotiation techniques and tactics. Alternatively, we can take your instructions and negotiate on your behalf with the departing employee or their solicitor.

Losing at Tribunal can be expensive. In the latest figures from the Ministry of Justice to March 2017:

• The average award for an unfair dismissal claim was £16,543. The most awarded was almost £1.75million.
• The average award for sex discrimination claims is £19,152
• In Race discrimination, the most awarded was £456,434 averaging £36,853
• Those successfully bringing disability discrimination claims were awarded on average £31,988
• The highest age discrimination claim saw an award of £154,309 averaging £35,663

The Settlement Agreement needs to be watertight – not just to protect your business from potential claims but also to protect confidential information and maintain discretion.

Protecting your business can be challenging. We know you will need to act quickly and commercially. With us you will know your business won’t be at risk from the employee once they have left.

Bespoke agreements

We have seen many hundreds of settlement agreements. You may have a template agreement you have always used in the past.  An expert employment law solicitor will know if it is out of date – employment law changes very quickly, which can leave loopholes your departing employee can exploit at a later date.

Whether you are losing a senior colleague on good terms or are wishing to protect yourself from genuine risk, you and your business deserve a fully up-to-date and high-quality settlement agreement.

Advising your employees

If you are not a client of McCabe and Co, we can provide a service to your employees: advising them on the terms of their Settlement Agreements, which in turn benefits you. We can even meet your employees confidentially at your workplace if you and they agree.

FREE first consultation

Have you ever wanted to just ask an expert employment law solicitor if they can help you, without worrying about what it may cost to contact them?