Employment tribunal fees were abolished last year as the result of a Supreme Court decision, removing a financial barrier that prevented some disgruntled employees from taking any action to address their complaints.
Since then, legal companies specialising in employment law have seen an increasing demand for their services, both from individuals seeking to have their complaint resolved at a tribunal and from companies that are keen to defend their decisions on staff discipline and dismissal.
The number of cases hasn’t just risen slightly, it has jumped by 64% to a four-year high.
This has meant an awful lot more work for the lawyers, paralegals and everyone else who concentrates on this sector.
In fact, in the month following the abolition of fees, more than 3000 claims were filed and since then there has been little sign of this number falling.
Clearly, there a large number of people who feel that they have been dealt with unfairly in the workplace and who are not content to move on to another job without having their say.
The extra workload for lawyers this has caused could increase too, if it is determined that employees who failed to bring a case within the current 31-day window were prevented from doing so because of financial reasons, in which case the deadline may be waived.
So far a decision on this has not been made, but if it does happen, lots of historical issues between employees and employers could become active again and find their way into the courts.
At the moment there’s no telling just how great that number could be.
However, in order to cope with their growing caseloads, legal companies working in this field could soon have an urgent need for extra staff.
Employment cases can be highly complex, especially when they involve more than one employee, and the amount of work needed either to bring a case and/or defend one is significant.
The good news is, as a lawyer you are in the fortunate position of being able to understand clearly the small print in your contract.
So, in theory, the sorts of issues that see people in other sectors end up in employment tribunals should not affect you.
Why not take a look on s1jobs, where you can find Legal vacancies whatever your specialty, whether that’s in employment, corporate or family law?