French to English Law/Patents Law: Contract(s)

"sans préjudice du pouvoir d’appréciation du juge le cas échéant".

The phrase is in a standard employment contract, in the termination clause. It lists a number of infractions for which an employee may be terminated without notice or compensation. I see there are many entries for "appréciation" (and for sans préjudice) in the glossaries, but want to be sure I am ok to translate in this context as follows:

"without prejudice to the power of a judge to assess the matter should the case warrant it" . Specifically, I am not sure whether "appréciation" here means simply to make a judgment, or if it refers to assessing the actual value of the damages if any. My wording here sort of leaves it open to either interpretation.

I thought generally "without prejudice" alone in legal terms is sufficient to express the idea that the party is entitled to seek further redress at law if losses or damages have been incurred. But since the French spells it out, I thought I need to do so as well.

Many thanks for your collective insights!