Settlement agreement advice

If your employer has offered you a settlement agreement, the law says you must get independent advice on it before it can be binding. We give that advice and sign the adviser's certificate. Your employer pays; you pay nothing.

£0 to youPaid from your employer's legal-costs contribution
1 working dayUsual turnaround once we have the agreement
InsuredProfessional indemnity cover, as the law requires

Send us your agreement

Do I need a solicitor?

No. Section 203 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 sets out who can advise you and sign the certificate. A solicitor is one option, but the law also allows a certified adviser at an advice centre:

“A person is a relevant independent adviser for the purposes of subsection (3)(c)—

  1. (a) if he is a qualified lawyer,
  2. (b) if he is an officer, official, employee or member of an independent trade union who has been certified in writing by the trade union as competent to give advice and as authorised to do so on behalf of the trade union,
  3. (c) if he works at an advice centre (whether as an employee or a volunteer) and has been certified in writing by the centre as competent to give advice and as authorised to do so on behalf of the centre, or
  4. (d) if he is a person of a description specified in an order made by the Secretary of State.”
Employment Rights Act 1996, section 203(3A). Read the full section on legislation.gov.uk

Our adviser is certified in writing by The UK Employee Advice Centre as competent to give this advice and authorised to do so on the Centre's behalf.

Why you pay nothing

The same section says an advice-centre adviser does not count as independent “if the employee or worker makes a payment for the advice received from him” (section 203(3B)(c)). So we never charge you. Our fee is paid by your employer, from the contribution to your legal costs that most settlement agreements already include.

What we do

  1. You send us the agreement and any covering letter from your employer.
  2. We review it: the payments and how they are taxed, your notice and holiday pay, the reference, confidentiality, and exactly which claims you would be giving up.
  3. We explain it to you by phone or video, and in writing, so you understand what you are signing and whether anything should be negotiated.
  4. We sign the adviser's certificate once you are happy, and send it to your employer.

Our fee

£500 flat, paid by your employer. No VAT. That sits within the usual employer contribution of £500 plus VAT. You will never be asked to pay anything yourself.

Who will advise you

Your adviser is Dami Olatuyi, the Centre's founder. Read about our adviser and standards.

Send us your agreement

Upload the agreement and any covering letter, and tell us when you need to sign. We will confirm the same day.

Drop your Word or PDF files here, or choose them

    Word or PDF (photos of the pages also work). Up to 5 files, 15 MB in total.

    Please make sure anyone with the link can view it.

    Prefer email? Send the agreement to [email protected].

    This page explains our settlement agreement service in general terms and is not advice on your situation. Quotations from the Employment Rights Act 1996 contain public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.