SERVICES · TRIBUNAL REPRESENTATION
Someone to speak for you at the hearing.
Representation at the Employment Tribunal, and across the First-tier and Upper Tribunal — tax, property, benefits, special educational needs and mental health. These hearings let a party be represented by lawyers, so we can build your case and put it for you — appearing by video or telephone, wherever you are in England and Wales. Fixed fee, agreed before we start.
TKJ Legal Services is a trading style of TKJ Global Media Ltd. We are not a law firm regulated by the SRA, and no one here practises as a solicitor. What that means for you.
WHAT’S INCLUDED
What we do here
- Employment Tribunal claims and responses — unfair dismissal, discrimination, unlawful deductions, redundancy — prepared and presented
- The Employment Appeal Tribunal, open on the very same wording (s 29 Employment Tribunals Act 1996)
- First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber): income tax, corporation tax, VAT and penalty appeals against HMRC
- First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber): service charge challenges, rent assessment, HMO licensing, right to manage and enfranchisement
- First-tier Tribunal (Social Entitlement Chamber): Universal Credit, PIP and other benefit appeals against the DWP
- First-tier Tribunal (Health, Education and Social Care): SEND appeals for parents, and mental health tribunals
- Upper Tribunal appeals, where the rules carry the same permission
- Valuation Tribunal for England: council tax banding and business rates
- The case itself — the bundle, the chronology, the witness statements and the submissions
- An honest read on the merits before you spend anything on it
Good to know
- Representing someone at these hearings is not a reserved activity. The Legal Services Act 2007 excludes from “right of audience” any right that carried no restriction before the Act commenced (Sch 2 para 3(2)), and excludes the same from the “conduct of litigation” (para 4(2)). Representation here was never restricted
- The Employment Tribunal is the plainest of all: a party may be represented by “any other person whom he desires to represent him” (s 6 Employment Tribunals Act 1996)
- The tribunal chambers use their own wording to the same end — a party may appoint a representative “whether a legal representative or not”, or in the Property Chamber “whether legally qualified or not”
- Immigration is the exception, and it is a criminal one. Read the line below before you ask
- Fixed fee per stage, agreed before we start
HOW IT WORKS
Three steps, one fixed fee.
Send us the papers and the dates
The decision, the claim or the notice, and every deadline on it. Tribunal time limits are short and most are strict.
An honest read, then a fixed-fee quote
What we think it is worth, what we would do, the price and the timetable. Nothing is billable until you say yes.
We build it, and we appear
Bundle, statements and submissions — and one of us putting your case at the hearing, by video or telephone.
WHERE WE STOP
The line we don’t cross
Immigration is the exception that matters, and it is not a question of preference. The tribunal rules themselves carve it out: the Upper Tribunal rules permit a representative “whether a legal representative or not” but expressly except anyone prohibited by s 84 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Providing immigration advice or services without being qualified or registered is a criminal offence under s 91(1) of that Act, and no general tribunal permission rescues you from it. We take no immigration work of any kind. Beyond that, a court of law is a court of law: once a matter leaves the tribunal system we hand it to a regulated solicitor.
Not on this service
- The Immigration and Asylum Chamber, and any immigration matter at all
- Any court of law — the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the county court
- Judicial review
- Family proceedings and the Court of Protection
- Any tribunal whose own rules do not permit a lay representative
- Hearings held in person — we appear by video or telephone, and the tribunal decides the format. We tell you what it has directed before you commit to the hearing stage
QUESTIONS
Asked before, answered straight.
You can really represent me at an employment tribunal, without being a solicitor?
Yes, and it is Parliament that says so rather than us. Section 6 of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996 provides that a person may appear before an employment tribunal in person or be represented by counsel or a solicitor, by a trade union or employers’ association representative, or by “any other person whom he desires to represent him”. That last limb is the whole answer. Section 29 opens the Employment Appeal Tribunal on identical wording.
Is tribunal advocacy a reserved activity?
No. The Legal Services Act 2007 reserves six activities, two of which are rights of audience and the conduct of litigation — but it carves out of both any right that carried no restriction before the Act commenced (Sch 2 paras 3(2) and 4(2)). Representation at these tribunals was open before the Act and is open now. For the tribunal most people mean, the Employment Tribunals Act 1996 puts it beyond argument: a party may be represented by “any other person whom he desires to represent him” (s 6). The one exception is immigration, and it is not an exception under this Act at all — it is a different statute, and a criminal one. See below.
Can you take on HMRC at the tax tribunal?
Yes. The First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) rules let a party appoint a representative “whether a legal representative or not”, which is why accountants and tax consultants appear there every week. We cover income tax, corporation tax, VAT and penalty appeals. What we do not do is the accountancy — if the dispute turns on the figures rather than the law or the procedure, your accountant should be in the room too.
Can you do my immigration appeal?
No, and nobody without that registration should offer to. Immigration advice and services are regulated separately by the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, and providing them without being a qualified lawyer or registered with the regulator is a criminal offence under s 91(1). The tribunal’s own rules exclude it too. The regulator, long known as the OISC, now operates as the Immigration Advice Authority, and its register is the place to find someone who may lawfully help.
What happens if we lose?
From the Employment Tribunal there is an appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, and we can take that too. From the First-tier Tribunal an appeal lies to the Upper Tribunal, where the rules again permit us. Beyond that the route is into the courts, and that is reserved work — we will tell you plainly when you have reached that point, and help you find a solicitor rather than string it out.
Tell us what you’re dealing with.
Booking a call costs nothing and commits you to nothing. If it needs work, you get a fixed-fee quote in writing.