Non-reserved business legal services
Thirteen posts, each taking one question a business owner has actually asked and settling it: what the law of England and Wales says, what to do about it, and whether it needs a solicitor. Grouped below by the question, then listed newest first.
The blog is where the questions that arrive by email get answered in public. Each piece takes one thing an owner has actually asked about — a clause the other side wants added, an invoice that has gone quiet, a first hire starting next month, a shareholder who wants out — and sets out where the law of England and Wales sits and what to do next. It is written for people who run businesses rather than for lawyers, which mostly means saying the answer first and the caveats after.
The difference between these pieces and the guides is scope. A guide walks the whole of a subject: what the document does, every clause worth arguing about, what happens if you get it wrong. A blog post takes one decision and settles it. If you are about to sign something, start with a post. If you are about to commission something, start with a guide.
Nothing here is advice on your circumstances, and nothing here is drafting you can lift into a document. Buzz Legal Ltd is not a firm of solicitors and is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Six legal activities are reserved by law, and Buzz Legal carries out none of them — where a matter needs reserved work, it goes to RHF Solicitors, authorised and regulated by the SRA under number 324115.
The two questions that arrive before anyone talks about law at all. How fast can you review my contract? sets out what actually drives the timescale on a contract review, a set of terms or a handbook, what slows it down, and what you can do to get your document back sooner. Buzz Legal or a solicitor: which do you actually need? draws the honest line between everyday non-reserved work and the matters that legally require a regulated solicitor, which is worth reading before you pay anybody.
Two posts on money that has not arrived. Your late-payment rights, explained is for the invoice that is overdue on a contract saying nothing about late payment: 11.75% statutory interest, £40 to £100 fixed compensation and recovery costs apply anyway. What happens when a handshake deal goes wrong is the harder version, where there was never a written contract and the two of you now remember it differently. The late payment interest calculator will put a figure on a specific invoice while you read.
Usually the answer is “in the parts nobody negotiated, no”. The contract clauses that quietly cost you money covers the everyday terms — payment, liability, renewal, indemnities — that decide who pays when things go wrong. The T&Cs mistake that quietly voids your protection is the one owners are most surprised by: excellent terms protect nobody if they arrived after the deal was struck. And the contracts to sort out before you scale makes the timing argument, because growth is what finds the gaps in paperwork built for a smaller business. The contract risk checker will tell you which of them you have.
Three posts covering the beginning, the end and the bit afterwards. Hiring your first employee: the legal basics lists the written statement, right-to-work checks, PAYE, insurance and pension to have done before day one. Settlement agreements: what employers need to know is for parting with someone cleanly and finally, and covers the strict rules that make one binding, including the independent advice the employee has to take. Are your restrictive covenants actually enforceable? answers the question every owner assumes is settled: non-competes and non-solicits bite only so far as they are reasonable. The employment documents checker lists what you are missing before you read any of them.
Do you actually need a shareholders' agreement? is the most-asked founder question on the site. It is not legally required, and the post says plainly what the signs are that you need one now and when you probably do not yet. A director's seven legal duties, in plain English covers what you took on the day you accepted the role, including how those duties tighten as a company approaches insolvency and start pointing at creditors rather than shareholders.
GDPR for small business, minus the jargon is a six-item to-do list: the ICO fee, a privacy notice that is actually true, knowing what you hold, agreements with the suppliers who touch your data, subject access requests and what to do when something goes wrong — plus the marketing rules that catch most small businesses out. It is deliberately the least dramatic post here, because for most small businesses the work is genuinely small and the anxiety is out of proportion to it.
The thirteen posts below run newest first, with the date each was published. They are written to stay true rather than to be topical, so an older post is not a stale one; where a figure or a statutory position is quoted, it is stated with the date it applies from so you can see exactly what it is pegged to.
Every post links on to at least one guide and one service page, so you can go deeper or get the thing dealt with. When you want it dealt with, the fixed-fee work page carries the real prices — a contract review at £249 +VAT, business terms and conditions at £695 +VAT, an employment starter pack at £895 +VAT, a shareholder agreement at £1,250 +VAT, HR policies with a handbook at £1,495 +VAT — and the subscription starts at £49 +VAT a month for owners whose legal questions arrive steadily rather than once. Anything else is scoped and agreed in writing before work starts.
You have a deadline and need to know whether it is realistic. What actually drives the timescale on a review, a set of terms or a handbook, what slows it down, and how to get your document back sooner.
Growth is about to test paperwork that was built for a smaller business. The customer terms, IP ownership, employment documents and shareholder agreement to nail down before it finds the gaps.
You accepted a directorship without reading anything about what it commits you to. The seven Companies Act 2006 duties in plain English, and how they tighten as a company approaches insolvency.
You suspect you are not compliant and have no idea how big the job is. For most small businesses it is short: the ICO fee, a truthful privacy notice, knowing what you hold, subject access requests, and the marketing rules.
You have a legal problem and do not know who to pay for it. The honest dividing line between everyday non-reserved work and the activities that legally require a regulated solicitor.
You want an employment relationship to end cleanly and finally. How a settlement agreement works, the strict rules that make one binding, and why the employee must take independent advice before it does.
You have good terms and assume they cover you. If they only arrived after the deal was struck — on the invoice, in an email footer — they never became part of the contract. How that happens and how to fix it.
A key employee is leaving for somewhere you would rather they did not. Non-competes and non-solicits bite only so far as they are reasonable, so a clause drawn as widely as possible protects nothing at all.
An invoice is overdue and your contract says nothing about late payment. It does not need to: 11.75% statutory interest, £40 to £100 fixed compensation and your recovery costs apply anyway.
You are about to stop being a sole operator. The written statement, right-to-work checks, PAYE, employers' liability insurance and the workplace pension, all to be done before day one rather than after it.
There is more than one owner and nobody has ever raised the subject. One is not legally required — here are the signs you need one now, and when you probably do not need one yet.
The deal has gone wrong and you are reading the contract properly for the first time. Payment terms, liability caps, auto-renewals and indemnities — and what to check before you sign the next one.
There was never a written contract and the two of you now remember it differently. A verbal deal can bind in England and Wales — where you stand, what evidence counts, and how to protect an agreement already made.
One email when something new is published. No newsletter, no sequence, and you can unsubscribe from any of them. If you have a live question rather than a reading list, book a legal review instead.
Clear scope · fixed fees available. Buzz Legal Ltd is not a firm of solicitors and is not regulated by the SRA.