Legal Advice and Support

Are you aware of your legal responsibilities, obligations and good practice?

It is imperative to keep up to date and comply with changes in legislation as the consequences can be costly affecting you, your employees and your business.

Employment law - Compensation awarded by Tribunals for Unfair and Constructive Dismissal as well as all the forms of Discrimination can be extremely high. In the last published statistics the average claim for Unfair Dismissal was almost £8000 (max £84000) and the average claim for Racial Discrimination was over £32000 (max over £1.3 million). The average costs awarded was almost £2500.

Health and Safety law - In the latest annual figures the average penalty on conviction was £14,614 per charge and £20,606 per case. However, on the level of human cost 180 workers were killed and an estimated 246,000 reportable injuries occurred. 29.3 million days were lost.

Trading Standards law - The effects of Trading Standards enforcement is much patchier. The local authorities vary in their levels of enforcement. However, for cases where there is evidence of a fraud it is not uncommon for magistrates to impose jail sentences as well as heavy fines which are unlimited to balance the severity of the crime.

Consumer law - This is an area of civil law, not criminal and as with Employment Law we are looking at compensation. The figures are not easily sourced. However, with the advent of Consumer Direct, consumers are trying in increasing numbers to obtain compensation irrespective of what your legal liability is.

We can provide your business with legal advice and support covering employment,health and safety, trading standards and consumer law.