Most people who live in Waltham Forest work somewhere else. The Victoria line from Walthamstow Central and the Central line from Leyton and Leytonstone carry them into the City, the West End and Canary Wharf every morning, which means the employment problems brought to solicitors in Waltham Forest were usually created in another borough: a redundancy at a bank, a grievance in a government department, a settlement agreement from a company in Shoreditch. The local solicitor's advantage is being near home, available after work and not charging City rates.
The borough's own employers add a steady caseload. Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone generates the whistleblowing, sickness-absence and discrimination claims that large hospitals produce everywhere, the council and the schools bring redundancy and grievance work, and the breweries, workshops and studios of Blackhorse Lane are small employers taking on their first staff and discovering what a contract needs to say. Retail on the High Street, care homes in Chingford and warehousing along the Lea Valley rely on part-time, agency and zero-hours staff whose holiday pay and status questions are a routine part of the work.
Claims from Waltham Forest workplaces go to the London East or London Central employment tribunal, and the deadline is the same everywhere: the claimant has three months less one day, counted from the dismissal or the act complained of, to open Acas early conciliation. A settlement agreement cannot be signed without independent advice, which the employer normally pays for.
A first assessment is usually free, and strong claims are sometimes run on a no-win, no-fee basis or paid for by legal expenses cover attached to a home insurance policy.
The employment firms serving Waltham Forest are listed below, verified firms first. Background reading: what employment law covers, the general employment law solicitors page and the cost of an employment contract; small employers may prefer the business law solicitors in Waltham Forest page.
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