Please note that Humane Resources is not taking on new claims management clients. The information below is only meant for existing clients.
All work is charged by the time spent, in six minute portions. The amount of time I can spend on your case may be limited by your budget. Counseling you and preparing your case is time consuming, but you can do some of the work yourself instead of paying me to do it.Here's a list of things you can probably do:
If I am to represent you in the employment tribunal, at some point, we have to declare to the other party all documents in our possession that are relevant to your case. This will typically be terms and conditions of employment, relevant procedures, correspondence about the situation(s) in dispute and the background, meeting minutes, proof of earnings, proof of attempts to find work and so on. If you have any other format evidence such as audio or video recordings, I need these as well. Here's what to do with them. Following this guide for preparing your documents will save at least a hundred pounds.
- Sort out your documents before sending them to me:
- Get them onto A4 paper with legible quality prints
- Put them in chronological order,
- If you have a chain of e-mails, use the date of the first e-mail;
- remove staples,
- Eliminate duplicates.
- Where the same e-mail occurs in several chains of e-mails, only send the fullest chain;
- Clean up the copies - remove your handwritten notes, unless the notes form part of the evidence;
- Scan the documents if you have a scanner, at 150 bpi, 8bit greyscale, saved as PDF, emailed or saved to CD. If you cannot do exactly this, or if scanning it is a real hassle, please don't try an alternative format. I use a sheet feed scanner that is pretty fast compared to a flatbed.
- Hole-punch the sheets and put them in a Lever Arch file or Ring Binder;
- Number the documents, starting at 1. Where several e-mails appear on one page, identify each e-mail with A, B, C etc. Mark the page number at the top of each sheet;
- Recorded meetings should ideally be supplied as an audio file with an accurate, typed transcript. (This does require typing skills and patience and I can commission an audio typist if necessary);
- Create an index in Microsoft Word. I will send you a template on request. Documents occupying one or more pages will have a page number and number of sheets. Where several E-mails appear on one sheet, the identifier will be page number + e-mail letter eg 24C;
- You can help further, if you wish, by copying the index table into a spreadsheet, and in a column to the right, adding a description indicating the relevance / significance of the document, maybe with a cross reference to another document. This helps me quickly understand your case
On the phone or in e-mails, ask and answer questions as concisely as you can. It is common for people who are under extreme stress to have a lot to say. It is almost certainly necessary for me to hear your full story at some point, but I only need to hear it once. If you're not sure what to ask, work it out and write it down before ringing. Be focused in the information you give.
Try to avoid asking me for answers you could get elsewhere for free. The Internet is filled with free generic information from reputable sources like ACAS, Business Link and so on, so try to get answers to your basic questions before paying me to answer them.
Draft your own witness statement, and get your witnesses to draft theirs. It is a good idea to have pointers from me about the subject areas to cover, but you're in the best position to write your testimony.
Securely pack the file and CD if appropriate and post it to me using a tracked, signed for delivery method, such as Royal Mail Guaranteed Delivery.
If you're not sure what else you could do yourself to minimise costs, ask.