Unfair Dismissal Claim Defence Lawyers for Employers

At Lupton Fawcett, we have a team of dedicated and experienced employment solicitors who will provide you with help and advice in an unfair dismissal case and most importantly, help protect your business.

With offices based in Leeds, York and Sheffield, we have a dedicated team ready to speak to you. Simply call us on 0333 323 5292 or use the contact form below and we will be in touch.

Avoiding Unfair Dismissal Claims

Unless your business can prove that an employee has been dismissed for one of the five reasons set out in the Employment Rights Act 1996, you may be accused of unfair dismissal.

The five reasons for fair dismissal are:

• A lack of capability or qualifications
• Conduct of the employee (such as attendance, dishonesty and gross misconduct)
• Redundancy
• Breach of a statutory duty or restriction
• Some other substantial reason (SOSR)

However, establishing a potentially fair reason for dismissal is only half the battle. Crucially, employers also need to be able to demonstrate that they have acted reasonably in dismissing an employee if a claim for unfair dismissal is to be avoided.

Automatic Unfair Dismissal

A dismissal will be deemed ‘automatically unfair’ if an employee has been dismissed for the following reasons:

• If an employee has exercised a statutory employment right such as paternity or maternity leave
• Whistleblowing
• Trade union participation
• The dismissal was connected to a health and safety reason
• Dismissal by business transfer

Processes and Procedures

Unfair dismissal cases can also be made if your businesses did not follow a fair procedure when dismissing an employee. For example, this could include not following the usual disciplinary process before letting an employee go, selectively choosing people to make redundant or failing to offer a right of appeal.

In order to avoid this, it is imperative that your business not only has effective processes and procedures in place, but that they are followed, too.

For more information on our fees, please click here to view our up-to-date schedule of costs.