Legal help for dismissal: legal aid and free advice

The Dutch Bar Association strongly opposes the planned €85 million annual cut in legal aid in 2015. State Secretary Fred Teeven's letter of 2 July 2014 is also part of this.

The proposed cuts mean that people with little money will soon be unable to afford a lawyer when they need legal help.

This excludes large groups of people from their right to legal aid, which, according to the Bar Association, leads to more injustice and degradation in society. Based on this thinking, we believe that legal aid in precarious situations should be possible differently, including for groups in our society that cannot afford legal assistance from an expensive employment lawyer.

One such situation is redundancy, and we are fully committed to that.

The biggest problem is that anyone seeking legal aid has to compulsorily visit the Legal Advice Bureau first, doubling the number of visitors there and unnecessarily 'pumping' people around the system.

In addition, the Order finds it careless that the government submits the measures to the House piecemeal, making it difficult to see the overall effect.

Despite constructive discussions with the secretary of state, the Bar Association maintains its position: the cuts are unacceptable and threaten access to justice for ordinary citizens.

This prediction has (thankfully) only partly come true. Austerity has meant that many workers are on their own in the event of redundancy and do not know what they are entitled to.

Especially at resign, one of the most consequential moments in your working life, you often need legal expertise to protect your rights and get a fair settlement.

Fortunately, there are developments that make access to legal aid and legal help possible again, specifically for employees facing dismissal.

With almost all lawyers and legal experts, legal assistance for dismissal will cost you money. With one platform of lawyers, you now receive free legal assistance on dismissal and that is redundancy-lawyers.co.uk.

Where traditional legal aid was often costly and complex, the platform of lawyers at ontslagrechtjuristen.nl has made legal help with dismissal accessible to a wide audience again.

Regardless of your income or financial situation, you can now get professional support in the most important aspect of your redundancy: making sure you get what you are entitled to.

The problem that state secretary Teeven and the Bar Association foresaw back in 2015 - that legal aid would become inaccessible - has thus also led to innovative solutions.

Employees can now have their rights checked by experienced employment lawyers for free and without obligation, without the financial hurdle that traditional legal aid often entails.

This accessible form of legal help focuses specifically on the area most workers face: dismissal and all that comes with it.

Dismissal law is one of the most complex areas of employment law. Employers often have experienced HR advisers and legal teams to ensure they get the best possible deal.

As an employee, you often face this alone. It is difficult to determine without legal knowledge whether what you are offered is fair. In short, your starting point as an employee is not exactly good. As an employee, you should receive free legal help for that reason.

The consequences of not having adequate and proper legal help are great. For instance, you are likely to:

• Severance payments much lower than what you are entitled to
• WW benefits at risk due to incorrect wording in settlement agreement
• There are hidden obligations in your settlement agreement that you only find out about after signing your settlement agreement or resignation
• There are other missed opportunities that a lawyer could have foreseen

Research on settlement agreements shows that more than 70% of initial proposals contain significant flaws. This means that the vast majority of employees do not get what they are entitled to, simply because they lack the legal expertise to properly assess their situation.

Get your settlement agreement checked for free by our experienced dismissal lawyers - Within 24 hours, you will know exactly what you are entitled to and whether your current proposal is fair.

This professional audit can make the difference between a severance payment of €18,000 and €34,500, as a recent example from our practice shows.

The form of legal aid for dismissal may work differently from what you were previously used to when you hired a lawyer or other legal firms dealing with dismissal. 

The platform dismissaljuristen.nl is one of the few legal service providers that is completely free for you as an employee in the dismissal law market - from preliminary interviews to negotiations with your employer. This looks like this:

1. You schedule a free intake with one of the lawyers, this can be done by phone, for example.
2. The lawyer gets to work on your situation. Do you already have a settlement agreement? If so, the lawyer will check within 24 hours that you get what you are legally entitled to.
3. The lawyer will contact you again about your rights and options. Are there things wrong in your settlement agreement? Then you will receive clear advice and it may be suggested that the lawyer contacts your employer to discuss things.

The big difference from traditional legal aid lies in the financial structure. Whereas traditional (online) legal firms or lawyers often charge €400-€750 for a comprehensive check and €500-€1,000 for negotiations, the platform of ontslagrechtjuristen.nl works only on the basis of results. The lawyers are convinced they are right in your dismissal case, which means they recover the costs from your employer in all cases. Are they not proven right? Then the risk lies with the lawyers and not with you, the employee.

This means that you as an employee are not at financial risk. Legal costs will only be passed on to the employer if there is actual improvement in your situation. In these cases, legal costs are recovered from your employer and this is never at the expense of your compensation in case of dismissal.

A settlement agreement is often the most important document you will encounter in your working life. It determines not only how much money you will receive upon dismissal, but also whether you remain entitled to unemployment benefits and what obligations you will take on for the future.

That is why the platform of ontslagrechtjuristen.nl also shares a lot of information on settlement agreements. For example, think about all the rules regarding transition compensation, severance pay the reflection period of your settlement agreement, as well as other useful information about, for example, your gross-net transitional compensation. You will also find on our platform a example of a settlement agreement.

For example, many employees do not know that the wording "the parties have agreed to terminate the employment" can cause problems with your unemployment benefit, while correct wording avoids this risk.

Some dismissal situations are more complex than others. For example, when there is a disrupted working relationship, specific legal rules apply that employers cannot simply rely on. In the case of a disrupted working relationship and dismissal, it is important to understand what this means legally and what protection you have as an employee.

A disrupted working relationship can only be used as grounds for dismissal when very specific conditions are met. Without adequate legal help, many employees do not know that they often have strong legal arguments to demand higher compensation or better conditions.