Buzz Legal or a Solicitor: Which Do You Need?

You have a problem — a contract that reads badly, a customer who has stopped paying, a member of staff you need to move on — and the first question is whether it needs a solicitor. Unless the work is reserved by law, or the matter has already turned contentious, it almost certainly does not. Everything else is drafting, reviewing, negotiating and preparing, and none of it requires a practising certificate.

That distinction is worth money. A Buzz Legal contract review starts at £249 +VAT against a written scope. At the £200 to £350 +VAT an hour commonly quoted for this work, the same sum buys between 45 minutes and an hour and a quarter of a solicitor's time. The skill is not avoiding solicitors — it is not paying solicitor rates for the parts that never needed one.

The two questions that decide it

Is it reserved? Six activities are reserved to authorised firms under the Legal Services Act 2007: conducting litigation, exercising a right of audience, reserved instrument activities covering most conveyancing, probate, notarial activities and administering oaths. Buzz Legal Ltd is not a firm of solicitors, is not regulated by the SRA, and does none of the six.

Is it contentious? Has the other side instructed solicitors, threatened proceedings, or issued a claim? Yes to either question and you want a solicitor. No to both and you are in non-reserved territory — which is most of what a small business actually needs.

The genuine grey area is a matter that is heated but not yet formal — an angry email, a threat made in a meeting, an invoice gone silent after three chasers. Those are usually still ours, and how they are handled from here decides whether they stay that way.

What Buzz Legal does

Business contracts, terms and conditions, supplier agreements and NDAs.
Website terms, privacy notices and data protection paperwork.
Employment contracts, staff handbooks and HR policies.
Shareholder and founder agreements, with a read-through of your articles alongside them.
Chasing unpaid invoices — statutory interest, fixed compensation, letter before action.
Dispute preparation: the chronology, the evidence and the pre-action correspondence.

All of it is priced against a written scope rather than an hourly meter: £249 +VAT for a contract review, £695 for business terms and conditions, £895 for an employment starter pack, £1,250 for a shareholder agreement, £1,495 for HR policies and a staff handbook. Where the work will be steady rather than one-off, the subscriptions run £49, £249 and £499 +VAT a month.

What goes to RHF Solicitors

Reserved and contentious work is carried out by RHF Solicitors, authorised and regulated by the SRA (no. 324115). Robert Festenstein is a solicitor, and when he acts on a reserved matter he does so at RHF rather than as part of Buzz Legal Ltd.

Issuing or defending a court claim, and any advocacy in court.
Employment tribunal representation — not strictly reserved, but specialist contentious work, and routed the same way rather than fudged.
The independent adviser's sign-off that makes a settlement agreement validly waive employment claims.
Conveyancing, probate, oaths and statutory declarations.
Anything where you would simply rather have a regulated firm on the whole file.

What you give up by not using a regulated firm

Three protections, named plainly rather than glossed over. There is no SRA compensation fund behind our own work. There are no compulsory solicitors' professional indemnity arrangements. And a complaint about our work cannot go to the Legal Ombudsman — it goes through our own procedure, which commits to acknowledgement within five working days, a substantive response within twenty, and a review by a senior person who was not involved if that does not settle it.

Everything RHF does carries the full regulatory framework. So go straight to a solicitor when a claim has already been issued; when the deadline in front of you is a legal limitation date rather than a commercial one; when the sum at stake is large enough that you want the compensation fund and the Ombudsman behind every part of the file; when the matter is conveyancing, probate, immigration or criminal; or simply when you would prefer one from the outset. Say so and we will take you to RHF rather than talk you round.

Disputes: where the money actually goes

Most of a dispute happens before anyone goes near a court, and that part is the cheapest to get right: working out what you can prove, building a dated chronology, pulling the emails and payment records that touch the disputed point, and sending a letter before action that follows pre-action conduct. None of it is reserved, and a good proportion of matters end there. Courts expect parties to try to resolve things first, so the work is never wasted even when it does not settle — it becomes the file the solicitor builds on, so regulated hours go on the case rather than on reading in.

In practice — illustrative example

From stand-off to settled

A joinery firm is owed £14,000 by a supplier who has gone quiet. Buzz Legal pulls the paperwork together, calculates statutory interest at 11.75% a year — 8% above the 3.75% Bank of England base rate in force since 18 December 2025 — plus the £100 fixed compensation due on a debt of £10,000 or more, and drafts the letter before action. If that ends it, there is no solicitor and no court. Nothing here promises it will, and no timescale or outcome is being guaranteed. If the supplier digs in and the firm issues a claim, that step, and only that step, goes to RHF Solicitors — arriving with the evidence already in order.

What we will not do is hold on to a matter that has become contentious in order to keep billing it. The moment it crosses that line, you hear about it.

What to do next

Send the document, or a paragraph describing the problem, and book a legal review. You get one of three answers: this is non-reserved, here is the fixed price and the scope; this is reserved or contentious, and it goes to RHF; or this is borderline, and here is what would tip it. We would rather tell you a matter belongs somewhere else than bill you for the wrong thing. Prices are on fixed-fee work, the full range on services, and if it is already a dispute, start with preparing for a dispute.

This is general legal information, not advice on your situation. For advice tailored to your business, book a legal review. Buzz Legal provides non-reserved business legal support; reserved legal activities are carried out by RHF Solicitors, authorised and regulated by the SRA (no. 324115).

Common questions

Is Buzz Legal a firm of solicitors?

No. Buzz Legal Ltd is not a firm of solicitors and is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We do non-reserved work: contracts, terms, employment documents, handbooks, privacy notices, shareholder agreements, debt chasing and dispute preparation. Six activities are reserved to authorised firms under the Legal Services Act 2007 — conducting litigation, rights of audience, reserved instrument activities covering most conveyancing, probate, notarial activities and administering oaths — and we do none of them. Those go to RHF Solicitors, authorised and regulated by the SRA (no. 324115). Robert Festenstein is a solicitor, and when he acts on a reserved matter he does so at RHF, not as part of Buzz Legal Ltd.

How do I know whether my problem needs a solicitor?

Ask two questions. Is it reserved — a court claim, conveyancing, probate? And is it contentious — has the other side instructed solicitors, threatened proceedings, or issued a claim? A yes to either means a solicitor. A no to both means it is almost certainly work we can do: drafting, reviewing, preventing, negotiating, preparing. The grey area is a matter that is heated but not yet formal, and the honest answer there is that it depends on how it is handled from here. If you are not sure, send it over and ask. We would rather tell you it belongs somewhere else than bill you for the wrong thing.

What do I lose by not using a regulated firm?

Three specific protections, and they are worth naming rather than glossing over. There is no SRA compensation fund available for our own work. There are no compulsory solicitors' professional indemnity arrangements. And complaints about our work cannot be taken to the Legal Ombudsman — they go through our own complaints procedure, which commits to acknowledgement within five working days, a substantive response within twenty working days, and a review by a senior person who was not involved if that response does not settle it. Anything RHF Solicitors does carries the full regulatory framework. Where the stakes make those protections worth paying for, we will say so rather than argue you out of it.

Can you represent me at a tribunal or in court?

No. Conducting litigation and exercising a right of audience are reserved activities, so a court claim goes to RHF Solicitors. Employment tribunal representation is not strictly reserved, but it is specialist contentious work and we route it the same way rather than pretending otherwise. What we do is the preparation, and it is not a consolation prize: working out what the dispute is really about and what you can prove, assembling the chronology and the evidence, drafting the letter before action and following pre-action conduct. A good proportion of matters end there. Where they do not, the prepared file goes across, so regulated hours are spent on the case rather than on reading in.

Why is Buzz Legal cheaper?

Because we carry less regulatory cost and we do a narrower range of work. An SRA-regulated firm funds compulsory professional indemnity arrangements, compensation fund contributions, a client account and continuous compliance reporting. We fund none of that, because we do not do reserved work and do not handle client money. We also quote a fixed price against a written scope instead of running an hourly meter, which removes any incentive to take longer. To put numbers on it: a contract review starts at £249 +VAT, and at the £200 to £350 +VAT hourly rates commonly quoted for this work, that same money buys somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour and a quarter.

Can you start a matter and hand it over if it escalates?

Yes, and it is often the cheapest route. We do the non-reserved groundwork — gathering evidence, drafting the letter before action, negotiating — and most matters end there. If one has to be litigated it moves to RHF Solicitors with everything already assembled, so you are not paying twice for the same background. The handover is not a cold referral to a stranger, because RHF is already connected to Buzz Legal and has sight of the file. What we will not do is hold on to a matter that has become contentious in order to keep billing it. The moment it crosses that line, you hear about it.

When should I skip Buzz Legal and go straight to a solicitor?

When a claim has already been issued, by you or against you. When the deadline in front of you is a legal limitation date rather than a commercial one. When the sum at stake is large enough that you want the SRA compensation fund and the Legal Ombudsman standing behind every part of the work. When the matter is conveyancing, probate, immigration or criminal. And when you simply prefer a solicitor from the outset, which is a perfectly reasonable preference — say so and we will take you straight to RHF rather than talk you round. Coming to us first in any of those situations costs you time, and time is usually what matters most once a clock is running.

Buzz Legal or a solicitor: which do you actually need?