Commercial/Litigation - Employment

Mr S was closing down the 40 year old family business which traded from two shops. After the transaction, Mr S found that, whilst he had acted with the best of intentions, unfortunately he had acted unlawfully in making his staff redundant, because he had later sold his shops as "going concerns".

The staff were entitled to claim unfair dismissal. Mr S had acted in breach of the Transfer of Undertaking Regulations. One of the redundant employees was claiming over £12,000 compensation and the others around £5,000 each.

Things looked bleak for Mr S. He consulted Levi Solicitors. He had been impressed by us when we were acting for the Leaseholders during the conveyancing transaction. We investigated and found evidence to greatly reduce the amount of damages claimed by all of the employees. We also spotted procedural defects on two of the cases and those two claims had to be dropped completely. We also took action against both purchasers of the shops for an indemnity. They had to pay the major part of the compensation.

Originally it had looked as though our clients had an uphill fight and were facing damages well over £25,000 and a four day trial. On the morning of the hearing, however, we negotiated a settlement. Mr S's pay out was limited to £1,500.