Non-reserved business legal services
They have stopped replying and somebody has mentioned solicitors. Here is what to do in the first week, in what order, and what it costs to have it done for you.
They have stopped answering the phone, the last two emails went nowhere, and now somebody has used the word 'solicitors'. Do not send the reply you have been composing in your head: the first week of a dispute is won by three unglamorous things — stop deleting anything, write a dated chronology, and read the contract you have never actually read — because a calm, evidenced letter before action ends far more business disputes than a court claim ever does.
That groundwork is not reserved legal work, so it does not need a solicitor and is not priced like one. Buzz Legal can triage the dispute, assemble the chronology and the evidence, draft the letter before action and handle the negotiation, at a fee agreed in writing before anything starts — against the £200 to £350 +VAT an hour commonly quoted for this work, where the meter runs whether it settles or not. What we cannot do is the court part. Issuing a claim, running it and representing you at a hearing are reserved activities only an authorised firm may carry out, so those go to RHF Solicitors (authorised and regulated by the SRA, no. 324115). Buzz Legal Ltd is not a firm of solicitors and is not SRA regulated, and you should know that before you decide who does what.
This is general legal information for England and Wales, not advice on your dispute.
Two questions before you spend a pound. What do you want — the money, the work finished, or the relationship ended cleanly? And what is the number? Add the principal, add what the delay has genuinely cost you, and if it is a debt add the statutory entitlements: under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 a business-to-business debt carries interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, plus fixed compensation of £40 on a debt under £1,000, £70 from £1,000 to £9,999.99 and £100 at £10,000 or more, per invoice. With the base rate at 3.75% on 30 June 2026, statutory interest runs at 11.75% a year on a debt falling late between 1 July and 31 December 2026.
Then ask the question almost nobody asks first: can they actually pay? Their filed accounts are free to read at Companies House, and a judgment against a company with no money in it is an expensive piece of paper. A £2,000 argument and a £120,000 argument justify completely different amounts of effort, and most owners give them the same.
Say it to your team out loud, in writing, this week. Destroying documents once a dispute is live turns a winnable case into a losing one and lands far worse than whatever caused the argument. Then gather, while it is fresh, into one folder nobody can overwrite:
Do not tidy the paper trail to make yourself look better, and do not let a well-meaning colleague do it either. Preserve the messages that do not flatter you — your adviser needs the real picture, and the other side almost certainly kept their copy of the one you deleted.
Spend ten minutes putting their argument on paper before you write a word of yours. The verbal promise you cannot evidence, the email where you conceded a point, the deliverable you were three weeks late on — find them now, because they will be quoted back at you either way. If the honest answer is that you are 60/40 rather than certain, that changes whether you push or settle, and it is far cheaper to learn it at your own desk than in front of a judge.
The strongest letter before action is written by the side that already knows its own weaknesses. Overstate a shaky case and the moment the other side finds the gap, your credibility on everything else goes with it.
In England and Wales you are expected to try to resolve it first. The Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct and the specific Pre-Action Protocols require you to set the claim out clearly, exchange the key documents and genuinely consider settlement or mediation before anyone issues proceedings. This is not etiquette. A party who refuses to engage can be penalised on costs even after winning, and the courts have power to order parties into alternative dispute resolution. So the early, reasonable letter is the process working as designed — and it is the cheap end of it.
Once a limitation period expires the claim is gone regardless of how right you were. The periods come from the Limitation Act 1980, in force since 1 May 1981: six years for a simple contract claim under section 5, twelve years where the contract was executed as a deed under section 8, six years for most tort claims under section 2, and three years for personal injury under section 11. Employment tribunal claims are the outlier — generally three months less one day from the act complained of, with Acas early conciliation pausing the clock.
The practical move is small and it works: on any live matter, diarise the date the cause of action arose and count forward from that, not from the day you noticed. Disputes drift because nobody owns the deadline.
This is the document that ends most disputes, and it is not a threat — it is a file summary the other side can check. A good one is factual, specific and dull: dates, documents, figures, no adjectives. A bad one is angry, vague or overstated, and it hurts you twice, because it invites a fight and it can be produced later to show who was being unreasonable. A strong one contains:
The mechanics matter as much as the content:
The measured letter that got paid — A design studio was owed £14,000 by a client who went quiet after delivery. Three months of chasing emails achieved nothing. One calm letter before action — the contract, the signed-off deliverables, the sum due, statutory interest and compensation, and 14 days before proceedings — was paid in full within nine days, and no claim was ever issued. The difference was not aggression. It was that the letter showed the groundwork was already done.
Court is slow, public, and can cost more than it recovers. Claims up to £10,000 usually go on the small claims track, where costs recovery is limited, so you rarely get your professional fees back; above that the issue fee is generally 5% of the claim and the costs risk climbs with it. Before you go near it:
When walking away was the win — A consultancy was owed £3,200 by a client who had become hard to trace and showed every sign of being unable to pay. The owner wanted to fight it on principle. The numbers changed her mind: the court fee, the real risk that a judgment could never be satisfied, and dozens of her own hours chasing a sum that might never arrive. She sent one firm letter, drew a line, and put the time into paid work. Knowing which disputes not to fight is its own kind of preparation.
The line is worth being blunt about. Buzz Legal does the non-reserved groundwork: triaging what the dispute is really about, organising the evidence, telling you where you stand, preparing the letter before action, and negotiating. That is frequently the whole matter. Conducting litigation and court advocacy — issuing proceedings, running the case, standing up in front of a judge — are reserved by law to authorised firms, and tribunal representation, while not strictly reserved, is specialist contentious work we route the same way rather than pretending otherwise. All of it goes to RHF Solicitors (authorised and regulated by the SRA, no. 324115), at rates agreed before that work starts. Because the prepared file goes with it, regulated hours are spent on the case rather than on reading in. Our comparison of Buzz Legal and a solicitor sets out what you give up as well as what you save.
Do the three things in this guide first — preserve everything, write the chronology, read the contract — because they cost nothing and they are what any adviser will ask for. Then book a legal review. It is a free call, and it ends with one of three straight answers: this is non-reserved work we can quote for, this needs RHF Solicitors, or this is not worth what it would cost you to chase. Dispute preparation is quoted as a piece of work with the fee agreed in writing before anything starts. If you would rather have cover in place before the next one, the Business Legal subscription at £249 +VAT a month includes the pre-dispute stage — but it will not retrospectively cover an argument you are already having, and we would tell you that rather than sell it to you.
Chasing unpaid invoices · Buzz Legal or a solicitor? · What Buzz Legal does · Fixed-fee work and prices
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).
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Five things, in order. Stop deleting anything and tell your team the same, because destroying documents that might be relevant becomes a serious problem later. Build a dated chronology of what happened, with the document that proves each entry noted against it. Read the contract, including the clauses you have never read: notice provisions, dispute resolution, limitation of liability, and any requirement to notify a claim within a set period. Work out what you actually want, which is often not the same as being proved right. And take advice before you reply in writing, because the first angry email is the one read out later.
The courts in England and Wales expect it. The Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct and the specific Pre-Action Protocols require parties to set out their claim clearly, exchange key documents and genuinely consider settlement or mediation before proceedings. A party who refuses to engage can be penalised on costs even if they ultimately win, and the courts have power to order parties into alternative dispute resolution. So early, reasonable engagement is part of the process rather than a sign of weakness. It is also usually cheaper: a matter that settles on the strength of a well-prepared letter costs a fraction of one that settles on the steps of the court.
It is the letter sent before any court claim, setting out who you are, what was agreed, what went wrong, what you want and a reasonable deadline to respond. A good one is factual, specific and dull: dates, documents, figures, no adjectives. It attaches or lists the key evidence and states plainly what will happen if there is no response. A bad one is angry, vague or overstated, and it damages you twice — it invites a fight, and it can be produced later to show you were the unreasonable party. Send it in a way you can prove was received, and give the time the applicable protocol requires.
There are limitation periods, and once one expires the claim is gone regardless of merit. Broadly, six years for breach of contract and most debt claims, running from the date the cause of action arose, and six years for tort claims, though the position is more complicated where damage is discovered later. Contracts executed as deeds carry twelve years. Employment tribunal claims are far shorter — generally three months less one day from the act complained of, with early conciliation affecting the clock. Personal injury is three years. Do not let a matter drift on the assumption you can act later; get the position checked early if time may be short.
No. Conducting litigation and representing you in court are reserved legal activities that only an authorised firm may carry out, so a formal claim goes to RHF Solicitors (authorised and regulated by the SRA, no. 324115) at rates agreed before that work starts. 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 groundwork: working out what the dispute is really about and what you can prove, assembling the chronology and evidence, drafting the letter before action, and negotiating. That often ends it. Where it does not, the prepared file goes across, so regulated hours are spent on the case rather than reading in.
Often not, and working that out early is worth more than winning slowly. Court is slow, public and can cost more than it recovers. Claims up to £10,000 usually go on the small claims track, where costs recovery is limited, so professional help is rarely recoverable; above that the issue fee is generally 5% of the claim and the costs risk climbs. Then there is the question nobody asks first: can the other side actually pay? Check their filed accounts and any judgments against them before spending anything. For a straightforward unpaid sum, treating it as a debt with statutory interest is usually simpler than running a dispute.
It resolves a great many commercial disputes, and refusing it unreasonably can cost you on costs even where you win. A mediation is a day with an independent mediator who moves between the parties; nothing binds until an agreement is signed, and what is said is without prejudice, so a party can explore settlement without weakening their case. The reasons to do it are speed, cost and keeping control of the outcome rather than handing it to a judge. The main reason it fails is going in unprepared — it needs the same chronology, evidence and clear view of what you want that a claim would. Prepare for mediation as if it were the hearing.
Clear scope · fixed fees available. Buzz Legal Ltd is not a firm of solicitors and is not regulated by the SRA.