What’s the difference between a COT3 and a settlement agreement. HR Solver
You don’t need a solicitor to get a settlement agreement. Yes I know, that’s a bit different to what I said in my last video! However, hear me out. Truly you don’t, especially if you’ve left employment. What you need is a really good strategy to getting a sum of money from your employer and to do this you need to leverage the Early conciliation process and get a COT3 agreement.
So what’s the difference, between a COT3 and a settlement? Well in my last video I explained that a settlement agreement is an agreement which terminates employment by giving an employee money in exchange for the employee not taking the employer to an employment tribunal. If you want to know more about a settlement agreement in depth and how a lawyer features in one, watch that video after this one.
The difference between that and a COT3 is that a COT3 is also an agreement in exchange for money but on the basis you will stop or not advance your in progress claim to employment tribunal. Surprisingly this COT3, is normally a very brief document by comparison to the settlement, it’s normally a page with a couple of key paragraphs.
Now the brevity of this document could be explained by its purpose and who actually uses it and drafts it, or as I said earlier its brevity could be explained by the timing for when it appears to you to be on the table. It’s normally used by ACAS conciliators and negotiators when they find that the employer wants to settle a prospective employment tribunal claim and they’ve understood from the claimant, you the employee that you will take a sum of money in return from dropping your claim. It normally cites the prospective employment tribunal claim and or potential claims, a paragraph which covers some kind of confidentiality requirement and that the sum of money agreed should be paid within 14 days of the employer receiving the signed agreement back from the claimant- you!
I’m going to talk tactics of negotiation in my last point on how to manage your COT3 settlement offer however, you’ll realise one of the points to doing that is understanding your rights and if you’re looking for guidance on the merits of your claim you need to go to the HR Solver website at hrsovler.co.uk and download my 9 questions and answers to understanding if you have a good claim for employment tribunal, there is also a case assessment tool there that you can use.
First make sure you make your early conciliation claim in time, you have 89 days, 3months less a day from your last day of employment or the date of the discriminator act to make a claim. Even if it’s day 89, filling in the simple early conciliation form and ticking the right box that means you wish to conciliate will stop the clock so you don’t need to complete the ET1 form the form that registers that your making a formal Employment tribunal claim, unless and when you get your early conciliation certificate back from ACAS. At the time of recording you normally have 6 weeks or 45 days of ‘conciliation’, but bear in mind this could be shorter if your employer decides they are not conciliating so a warning to stay on top of timescales.
Second Get to the essence of your case and understand your claim and be able to write it and say it clearly, you don’t need jargon you just need to be able to say what you’ve suffered and how it was against employment legislation.
If they do, then the COT3 will normally be sent to you via the ACAS conciliator by email or post and the terms your employer or their solicitor will have written, you don’t need legal advice to sign it, but can take it you feel it will help. You can also ask the ACAS conciliator to explain anything that you don’t understand, however, they are likely to say they can’t give you legal advice. However, they might help you- if you don’t ask you don’t get! The COT3 that you are presented with shouldn’t be overly complicated as it should just be closing down your ability to take the employer to an employment tribunal in exchange for your payment. If it looks more detailed than that or more like a settlement agreement that might, only might, suggest they are running scared and then it might be worth having a think about the money offered to you versus the approach they’ve taken and if there is more potentially to the claim than you thought. I had a client that was offered initially £7,000 but with some of my advice and their new knowledge on how and what to negotiate on demonstrating the knew the true value of their claim they walked away with £20,000.