Found cheaper? We match it — see conditions. Incorporation and secretary transfer also carry a 30-day money-back guarantee.
You already know you were right to let them go. Whether you can prove it is the only question left.
The clock started the day you let them go — not the day they complain.
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separate questions a dismissal is judged on — most employers prepare for one
What actually decides an unfair dismissal case
Four things it turns on
REASON
Just cause
A valid ground — misconduct, poor performance, redundancy — genuinely present and provable, not just felt to be true at the time.
PROCESS
A fair process
Warned, given a real chance to respond, and the decision reached deliberately — not a snap call made and announced the same day.
RECORD
What was written down at the time
The warning, the meeting, the reason as stated then — not reconstructed from memory once a claim has already arrived.
WINDOW
How long there is to act
A real time limit to bring, or to properly respond to, a claim — running from the date of the dismissal itself.
+ the two tests are weighed separately — a sound reason does not excuse a bad process, and a good process does not excuse an unfair reason
+ most employers prepare an answer for the first question and never think about the second until a claim has already landed
What the bill depends on
What it looks like
The cost depends on how strong your case is.
What's actually true
It depends on how long the process runs — hearings, mentions, letters — and that is set by the other side and the schedule, not by how right you are. Which is why an hourly engagement cannot tell you the total when you start.
So the number that matters is not the rate. It is whether anyone will commit to a figure before the work begins.
The decision was already made. The record is what's being judged now.
You can bring in representation at any point after the fact. What nobody can do is go back and create the warning that was never given, or the meeting that never happened — the process is judged on what was actually done and written down at the time, and that either exists already or it doesn't.
Malaysian employment law tests a dismissal on two separate questions: whether there was a valid reason, and whether a fair process was followed in reaching it. A sound reason on its own does not answer the second question, and the process is assessed on what was genuinely done and recorded at the time — not on how convincingly it is explained afterward. The exact framing, and any provisions or forum to name, are being confirmed with legal before this page states them.
The one question that decides this
Anyone can argue your case at a hearing. Almost nobody can show up with a record that was already being kept before there was a dispute.
What happens once a claim actually lands
Any competent employment litigator and OCTIS can both argue your case well. The difference shows up in what each side can actually put in front of the person deciding it:
Why the record already exists before a case does
The employment contract is signed and filed in the account
the terms, the role, the start date — not a paper copy in a drawer
Payroll runs against it every month
pay, deductions and attendance are already a running record, not a reconstruction
A warning, if one is ever issued, is logged where it's issued
dated and attributed at the time, not written up afterward from memory
When a dismissal happens, the record is already there
not assembled after the claim lands — it existed before the dispute did
A litigator engaged after the fact can only work with whatever you can still find and remember. They didn't run the payroll and they weren't the one who logged the warning — they cannot produce a record that was never being kept systematically in the first place. Only whoever was already keeping it can hand it over complete.
The window to act
There's a real time limit to bring, or to properly respond to, a dismissal claim, running from the date of the dismissal. How long it is isn't something to guess at:
We check this first, before anything else — because if it's already shut, it changes what's actually possible, and it's worth confirming precisely rather than assuming from a general rule of thumb.
Right reason, wrong process
Here's the pattern that catches most employers — a dismissal with a genuinely sound reason, and a process that skipped the steps:
This isn't a technicality catching honest employers by surprise. It's the actual test, and it's checkable in advance — which is the point of looking at it before a dismissal, not after one.
What it costs to pull the record
RM 0
to compile the contract, the payroll history and any documented warnings for this employee — if they're already on OCTIS, it's already the same account, not a request sent to a separate payroll provider or a filing cabinet.
For anyone not already on OCTIS, this is exactly the record that gets assembled from scratch instead — slower, and dependent on what can still be found.
From what happened to a fixed fee
This is quote-based work — scope genuinely varies with what happened and what was recorded. Here's how the fee gets fixed, not run up as it goes:
You tell us what happened
the dismissal, any warnings, and the date — the date matters more than anything else at this stage
We check the window first
whether the time limit to act has already passed, before anything else is worth discussing
We look at what's actually documented
the contract, the payroll record, any written warnings — already in one place if you're on OCTIS, gathered from what you have if you're not
A fixed fee, agreed before anything starts
not billed by the hour, and not a share of any outcome — you know the number before you commit to it
The one thing that moves the fee is how much of the record already exists. Most of what a case turns on should have been written down months before the dispute — this is where we find out how much of it was.
Timing
There's a window to act, and it's short
We check whether it's already closed before anything else — it decides what's actually possible from here.
The fee
Fixed, and agreed before work starts
Not billed by the hour, and not a percentage of any outcome — you know the number before you commit.
Who does the work
An in-house Advocate & Solicitor
Representation is a distinct, paid step — not something a document or a record does on its own.
Not covered
- The 30-day money-back guarantee covers only new company incorporation and transfer of company secretary — not this, or any other legal service. What applies here instead: a fixed fee agreed before work starts, a retainer you can cancel any month, and your documents leave with you.
- If nothing was ever written down — no contract, no warning, no note of what was actually said — it cannot be recreated after the fact in a way that looks like it was made at the time. What we can do from here is document accurately going forward; that is real, but it is not the same as a record that already existed.
- This service is for an employer already past the decision — a dismissal has happened, or a claim already exists. If you're still deciding whether to let someone go, that's a different, earlier conversation — advice before the decision, not representation after it — and it costs far less to get right.
- SSM's own statutory filing fees, where any part of this touches a filing, are charged by SSM directly and are not part of this service.
Can an employer get legal representation for defending an unfair dismissal claim?
Yes — this service is for an employer already past the decision, meaning a dismissal has happened or a claim already exists, not someone still deciding whether to let an employee go, and not for the employee's side of a dispute, which is a separate conversation. An in-house Advocate & Solicitor reviews the contract, payroll record and any warnings, and represents the employer for a fixed fee agreed upfront.
What determines whether a dismissal is judged unfair under Malaysian employment law?
Two separate tests: whether there was a valid reason — misconduct, poor performance, redundancy, genuinely present and provable — and whether a fair process was followed in reaching it, including a warning and a real chance to respond. A sound reason does not excuse a bad process, and a good process does not excuse an unfair reason; both are weighed separately.
Can an employer still win a dismissal case if the reason was sound but the process was skipped?
No — a sound reason on its own does not answer the fair-process question. A dismissal with a genuinely documented reason but no warning, no chance to respond, and a decision made and announced the same day, still loses on the process test.
Is there a time limit to bring or respond to a dismissal claim in Malaysia?
Yes — a real time limit runs from the date of the dismissal itself, and it's checked first before anything else is worth discussing, because if it's already closed, that changes what's actually possible. The exact length depends on the specifics of the case rather than a general rule of thumb, so it's confirmed rather than assumed.
If warnings were only given verbally and nothing was documented at the time, can a dismissal case still be defended?
Yes, but honestly: a record made now is weaker than one made at the time, because it can't be dated to when things actually happened. Documenting accurately going forward is real, but it isn't the same as a record that already existed before the dispute started.
Does OCTIS's 30-day money-back guarantee cover employment dispute or dismissal defence work?
No — the guarantee covers only new company incorporation and transfer of company secretary. What applies here instead is a fixed fee agreed before work starts and a retainer you can cancel any month.
The case isn't decided by what you say happened. It's decided by what you can show was already written down.
Tell us what happened. One of our in-house Advocates & Solicitors reviews the record and tells you exactly where you stand.