Edinburgh home help takes equal pay lawyer to court
UPDATE:
Members wins case
Home Help Jacqueline Quinn is taking equal pay lawyer Stefan
Cross to court after he charged her £500 for taking her
case to another lawyer.
Newcastle based Cross shot to prominence by persuading
thousands of local authority workers to let him pursue their
equal pay claims, rather than rely on their trade unions.
Jacqueline, who works for Edinburgh City Council, said:
“I thought Mr Cross would get me a quick settlement of my
equal pay claim, but I didn’t realise there was a horrific
penalty clause in the contract.
“The clause says that if I end the agreement or change
lawyers before the case is settled I have to pay him £500
for every six months I was on his books…and if I go on to
win the case I still have to pay him 100% of his costs on
top of the £500. But that’s not all. If I accept an offer
to settle the case, he still gets 10% of my compensation.
UNISON’s Scottish Organiser Glyn Hawker said: “Stefan Cross
portrays himself as the people’s champion but we’ve been
warning our members for years that it will cost them if
they instruct him.
“If he persuades a couple of thousand council workers
to sign up with him, he only has to win one case, and the
local authority will end up paying all the outstanding claims
and he gets 10% of all their compensation. That’s a huge
return.”
Syd Smith, Senior Partner with Thompsons Solicitors in
Scotland who represent UNISON said: “We believe Mr Cross
is wrong on three points of law. Solicitors in Scotland
cannot charge flat rate contingency fees... they cannot
take a percentage cut from a person’s money no matter what
work was done.
“If we wanted to make a charge in these circumstances we
would have to submit a detailed bill for all the work we
had done. He cannot put penalties into these contracts.
“Mr Cross must also know perfectly well that he cannot
go to an English County Court to try and enforce a contract
he signed with a Scottish client in Scotland.
“That’s why we are seeking an interdict to stop his threats
of action against Mrs Quinn.”
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