Non-reserved business legal services
An ET1 has arrived, or ACAS has been in touch, and you have less time than you think. Tribunal work is not reserved to solicitors, which is why we can do it at a fixed fee.
Employment tribunal claims are one of the clearest cases for what this firm is for. Representation in the tribunal is not a reserved legal activity — you do not need a solicitor to defend a claim, and a great many respondents are represented by consultants and in-house teams. What you do need is someone who will read the file properly and give you an honest view of it early, because the expensive mistakes in tribunal work are almost all made in the first fortnight.
A response is due within 28 days of the date the tribunal sent you the claim. Miss it and a judgment can be issued without a hearing, leaving you arguing about remedy rather than about liability. If an ET1 has landed, deal with the date before you deal with the merits.
If ACAS has contacted you, a claim has not yet been issued and you are at the cheapest point the dispute will ever reach. A meaningful proportion of disputes settle here for a fraction of the cost of defending, and settling is not an admission. It is also the moment to work out honestly whether you would win.
Tribunal costs orders are unusual. Winning generally does not get your costs back, which means the cost of defending is a real cost whatever the outcome, and it belongs in the decision about whether to settle. Any adviser who does not raise that early is not helping you.
Our fees are fixed and agreed in writing before anything starts, scoped to the stage. Where a claim needs a barrister, or a regulated firm, we will say so rather than take it because we can.
Most claims we see trace back to something that was missing rather than something that was done wrongly: no written statement of terms, a handbook nobody had read, a dismissal run without a process, or a settlement agreement drafted from a template. Those are the documents Buzz Legal exists for, at published fixed fees — see fixed-fee work. The employment starter pack is £895 +VAT and HR policies and a staff handbook are £1,495 +VAT.
There is a standing HR line too, for employers who would rather have this covered continuously than in an emergency — subscription.
Rights of audience in the employment tribunal are not restricted the way they are in the courts, so representation there is not a reserved legal activity. Whether we are the right people for a particular final hearing is a separate question and depends on the claim — we will tell you plainly when a case needs a barrister or a regulated firm rather than take it because we can.
That a prospective claimant has started the process. Early conciliation is normally a required step before a claim can be presented, and it is an opportunity — many disputes settle there at a fraction of what defending a claim costs. It also starts a clock. Do not ignore it.
A response is due within 28 days of the date the claim was sent to you by the tribunal. Missing it is serious: a judgment can be issued without a hearing. If a claim form has landed, that is the same-day priority, ahead of working out the merits.
A fixed fee agreed in writing before anything starts, scoped to the stage — reviewing the claim and advising, preparing the response, or running the matter through to hearing. We do not quote a single published number for tribunal work because the claims differ too much for that to be honest.
No. Buzz Legal Ltd is not a firm of solicitors and is not regulated by the SRA, and you do not get the SRA compensation fund or the Legal Ombudsman in respect of our work. Employment tribunal work is not reserved, so this is genuinely work we can do — but you should know the position before you instruct us. Anything that has to go to a court rather than a tribunal goes to RHF Solicitors, SRA no. 324115.
Clear scope · fixed fees available. Buzz Legal Ltd is not a firm of solicitors and is not regulated by the SRA.