Same-day settlement agreement advice: submit before 2pm for same-day review

What does "same-day" mean here?

It refers to when your agreement gets reviewed, not a response-time countdown. Submit before 2pm on a working day and a solicitor reviews your agreement that same working day. Submissions after 2pm, or over a weekend, are picked up the next working day.

Once the review is done, you book your advice call at a time that suits you. Standard review: £0 to the employee; the employer pays under the agreement's legal-fees clause.

What you need ready for a same-day review

The same-day slot depends on the solicitor being able to open your case and start straight away, so having these ready before you submit keeps you inside the cutoff:

• The settlement agreement itself, as a document (PDF, Word, or a clear photo of every page)
• Any letter or email setting out your employer's deadline for signing, if one has been given
• Your current salary and any bonus, commission or benefits, so the offer can be checked against them
• A rough note of how long you have worked there, and whether the reason given is redundancy, performance, conduct, or something else
• Any earlier correspondence about the exit, including a settlement offer letter or a protected-conversation email, if there is one

You do not need a fully organised file. A single clear copy of the agreement is enough to start a same-day review; the rest can follow before your advice call.

What if my employer's deadline is shorter than 10 days?

The Acas Code of Practice on Settlement Agreements suggests 10 calendar days as a reasonable period for an employee to consider an offer and take advice. That is guidance an employment tribunal weighs when looking at whether an employer behaved fairly, not a strict legal minimum an employer must always give, and some employers set a shorter date in the letter itself.

If your deadline is shorter than 10 calendar days, it is worth raising that directly with your employer or their solicitor: pointing to the Acas Code and asking for the extra time is a normal, low-friction request, and employers frequently agree to it once asked, because a rushed sign-off with no time to take advice can itself undermine the validity of the agreement. If they will not move the date, a same-day review is exactly the tool for a tight deadline: submitting before 2pm gets a solicitor looking at your specific timeline the same working day, so you know where you stand well before the date arrives.

How to book your same-day review

Submit your agreement using the link below. Once it has been reviewed, you will be offered a time to book your advice call, when the solicitor talks you through what the agreement means, whether the offer is fair, and what (if anything) is worth negotiating before you sign.