Preliminary Hearing

If you are an employee, you need to know what to say during the preliminary hearing.

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Conesa Legal

At Conesa Legal, a legal advisory firm based in Barcelona, we have a team of lawyers specialized in all areas of law. We also provide comprehensive advisory and management services covering payroll, tax and accounting, and corporate compliance for both companies and self-employed professionals. We stand out for our expertise in labor law and social security, offering a highly specialized and personalized service since 1976. Our services include both preventive and reactive legal advice and representation, tailored to the needs of businesses and workers alike. Our multilingual team provides legal assistance in English, French, and Spanish, and is well prepared to support a broad range of local and international clients, whether they are companies seeking comprehensive legal solutions or individuals in need of personalized legal advice.

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The Supreme Court has sought to prevent dismissals by encouraging employers to reconsider before taking action. However, this has an unintended drawback: most employees end up providing a detailed account of every point raised by the company.

Responding at length has both advantages and disadvantages.

• The advantage is that the employee may hope to prevent the dismissal by giving the company reason to change its mind.
• The reality is that this tends to work very much in the company's favour, it gives them the opportunity to refine, expand and strengthen the grounds set out in the dismissal letter, and to build the evidential strategy they will need at trial.

The employment lawyer representing the employee will lose all element of surprise and strategic advantage, reducing the chances of securing a finding of unfair dismissal.

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In over 50 years of practice as employment lawyers, we have seen very few employers change their minds: reinstatements are rare, and in cases of unfair dismissal, outcomes tend to favour compensation.

Knowing what to say, and how to say it, makes all the difference.

If you would like to speak with a specialist employment lawyer who can advise you on the preliminary hearing to avoid a finding of fair dismissal and pursue a claim for unfair dismissal, get in touch here: