Stress, anxiety and frustration

ALM said:

Does anyone have any tips of how to negotiate this awful time and how to look after yourself. 

Using an experienced employment lawyer is a good choice and a route I have used several times to considerable success.

You may want to try to find one with a specialisation in disability discrimination but these seem to be fewer.

For your personal wellbeing I would recommend working with a psychotherapist who has experience in helping autists as they can teach you great techniques for coping.

Good luck with the case - if they are already negotiating then this is a good sign in my experience. Don't get too greedy would also be my advice. If you want to make them suffer then I have seen way too many cases fail in court due to lack of damning evidence or a judge who didn't really understand the disability discrimination that autists face (since we seem normal to them).

Of course this isn't legal advice, only my experience so don't act on it please. Make your own research and do what you feel is right.

Thanks for your response. 

It's very practical and I appreciate that. 

I'm with an employment solicitor. It was so challenging to find the right solicitor. Lots using AI now. Very difficult, as I have so many questions. Notwithstanding figuring out what fees are for which piece of work/consultation/meeting. 

It's difficult to quantify a settlement amount as they'll never understand the devastating impact on my mental health. Difficult not to ask for something that significantly covers injury to feelings. 

You mentioned you've used a Employment Solicitor to much success previously. Was it for discrimination? Any advice based on your experience of this process? 

It's good to hear other people's experiences to understand how it all works. 

Have to do it again due to a mould issue in a flat I rented. 

Thanks for your response. 

It's very practical and I appreciate that. 

I'm with an employment solicitor. It was so challenging to find the right solicitor. Lots using AI now. Very difficult, as I have so many questions. Notwithstanding figuring out what fees are for which piece of work/consultation/meeting. 

It's difficult to quantify a settlement amount as they'll never understand the devastating impact on my mental health. Difficult not to ask for something that significantly covers injury to feelings. 

You mentioned you've used a Employment Solicitor to much success previously. Was it for discrimination? Any advice based on your experience of this process? 

It's good to hear other people's experiences to understand how it all works. 

Have to do it again due to a mould issue in a flat I rented. 

ALM said:

You mentioned you've used a Employment Solicitor to much success previously. Was it for discrimination? Any advice based on your experience of this process? 

I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to not talk about the details - this is pretty standard for them as it is an effective way to shut you up and protect the reputation for the company.

In my case I received a large lump sum plus 3 months gardening leave for a new manager targetting me - luckily I kept all me emails offline so could produce quite a damning catalogue of failures in process that led to this plus a load of other dirty laundry I kept on the directors.

My cases all revolved around what I now know are my autistic traits but didn't know it at the time. The one time I wouldn't accept anything but justice it ended up with them not paying but my manager and several of his buddies fired thanks to evidence I kept on their embezzlement. The satisfaction did not make up for the loss in income there.

A good employment solicitor will give a consultation fee for a set price (probably around £200) and tell you if you have a case or not. What we may think of as bullying may just be normal practice by poor management and not rise to the legal definition of discrimination, so it is worth clearing this up with them at this stage.

ALM said:

It's difficult to quantify a settlement amount as they'll never understand the devastating impact on my mental health.

As I understand it you will have to show it has affected you financially so you may need to calculate loss of future earnings until you are fit to return to work. Any other "damages" are incredibly hard to define as nobody really can quantify the cost of emotional distress.

I recall being advised to estimate about 3 months of salary as damages and in some cases you can be made redundant too in order to get a secondary payout if the evidence is strong.

The solicitor can give you all the current info (mine is not nearly 10 years out of date).

Having proof seems to be key in most cases so keep everything you have close at hand and keep a summary of the events to make it easier to show to anyone you need to.

I hope I haven't overstepped any legal advice guidelines from NAS - if so let me know and I will edit the post.