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Fixed-fee contract review

A contract review here is a fixed £249 +VAT, agreed in writing before anybody opens the document.

A business owner reading through a contract at her desk

Most contracts get signed unread

At £200 to £350 +VAT an hour, asking a commercial solicitor to read twelve pages is an open cheque, and the document needs signing this week. So it gets signed, and the liability clause becomes a problem two years later.

You know the fixed fee before we start, and it covers the whole job.

What you get back

Your own document, marked up

Every comment attached to the clause it is about.

A plain-English summary

Standard terms separated from the ones to negotiate.

Ranked by what they cost you

The clauses that would hurt most, first.

Wording to push back with

Suggested wording for your reply to the other side.

Four clauses decide most of what a contract will cost you

01

Liability

Whether your exposure is capped, at what, and whether the cap carves out the things most likely to go wrong.

02

Termination

Who can walk away, on what notice, and what happens to work already done and money already spent.

03

Payment

When you get paid, as opposed to when you invoice, what triggers the obligation, and whether late payment carries any consequence.

04

When it goes wrong

Which law applies, where a dispute is heard, whether you have to mediate first, and what the other side has to prove.

From your inbox to a marked-up copy in five working days

  1. Day 0

    Send us one line

    Tell us what the contract is and who sent it, using the form at the top of this page.

  2. Same day

    Approve the price

    A fixed price against a written scope. Nothing starts, and nothing is chargeable, until you say yes.

  3. Within 5 working days

    Get it back marked up

    Your document with comments, the summary and suggested wording, counted from the day you send the contract.

Three ways to get a contract read

Two people going through a printed contract at a meeting table

A solicitor by the hour

£200–£350 +VAT an hour

The total is known only after the work.

A template website

From free

A template helps with a document you write yourself.

Buzz Legal

£249 +VAT, fixed

We read it in full, mark it up and send it back within five working days.

Start my contract review →

What the price covers

The £249 is a contract of ordinary length and complexity — a normal commercial agreement between two businesses: client, supplier, reseller and partnership agreements. It is a starting price because a ten-page supplier agreement and a sixty-page framework contract are both “a contract review”, and charging the same for both would overcharge one of you.

What makes a job non-standard

The length and complexity of the document; the number of parties; selling to consumers, which brings statutory cancellation rights and the unfair terms rules into play; a schedule of several related documents; and anything already in dispute, which is not fixed-fee work at all. If yours is one of those, you get a figure before we start.

We explain what a clause does and why it matters, and suggest wording to push back with; that wording is not operative drafting to rely on without advice on your circumstances.

Where our limits are

Reviewing and explaining a contract is not a reserved legal activity, which is why it can be priced like ordinary work. Work carried out by AD Solicitors carries the full SRA framework, including the compensation fund and the Legal Ombudsman. Work we carry out ourselves does not. If your contract is already in dispute, or the review turns up something that needs an authorised firm, it goes to AD Solicitors (SRA no. 8011228) and you are told that at the scoping stage, before you have spent anything. See preparing for a dispute if you are already past that point.

Buzz Legal handles contracts, terms of trade, employment paperwork and dispute preparation. Court work, and the other activities reserved by law, are carried out by AD Solicitors, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (no. 8011228). How this works, in full. For advice on your own situation, send us the contract.

Common questions

How much does a contract review cost?

A fixed £249 +VAT for a commercial contract of ordinary length and complexity, agreed in writing before anything starts. That price covers the whole job: at the £200 to £350 +VAT an hour commonly quoted for this kind of work, £249 buys roughly an hour of a solicitor's time, . If your document is materially bigger than ordinary — a long framework agreement, several linked documents, or consumer-facing terms — we say so and re-quote before starting.

What is a contract review, exactly?

Somebody reads the contract you have been asked to sign, in full, and tells you what it means for you in practice. You get a marked-up copy of your own document, a written summary separating the standard terms from the ones to negotiate, and suggested wording for the clauses to push back on. The job is to find the few clauses that would cost you money if the relationship goes wrong, and to tell you which of them the other side is likely to move on.

Can you review a contract that I have already signed?

Yes. It helps most when something has started to go wrong, or when the same agreement is about to renew. What changes is the purpose: instead of telling you what to negotiate, the review tells you where you already stand — what you are committed to, what your options are, and whether there is a way out. If the matter has already become a dispute it stops being fixed-fee work and needs a different conversation, and possibly a regulated firm. Say so when you send it and we will tell you which it is.

Do you review contracts for consumers as well as businesses?

The service is built for business-to-business commercial agreements — client, supplier, reseller and partnership contracts. Selling to consumers brings a different set of rules into play, including statutory cancellation rights and the unfair terms regime, so consumer-facing terms are priced separately, as part of a terms and conditions package. If you are not sure which side of that line your document falls on, send it and we will tell you before quoting.

Will you rewrite the contract for me?

We will suggest wording for the clauses to change, for your reply to the other side. That wording is not operative drafting to rely on without advice on your particular circumstances. If your matter needs a solicitor to draft and stand behind the wording, that goes to AD Solicitors and you are told before any money is spent.

What if I have a lot of contracts?

A business that signs somebody else's paperwork most months is often cheaper on a monthly plan, and the £249 +VAT a month plan is the first one where a person reads your contracts and marks them up for you. A single job stays a fixed fee. Tell us how many you sign in a typical month and we will show you both figures.

Send us the contract

Send one line on what it is and who sent it. You get back a fixed price against a defined scope, or the figure for a larger job if it is bigger than ordinary. See the privacy policy for how we use your details.

We reply by email. Nothing is chargeable until you have agreed a scope and a price in writing.

Fixed-fee contract review

Send us the contract

We read one commercial contract of ordinary length in full for a fixed £249 +VAT agreed in writing before anybody opens the document.

Buzz Legal Ltd — business legal services for owners and employers. Court work is handled by AD Solicitors, authorised and regulated by the SRA (no. 8011228).