Everyday UK law, clearly explained.
Online reviews are a fact of commercial life, but harsh criticism is not automatically defamatory. This guide explains the serious harm threshold, the defences of honest opinion and public interest, and the evidence a small business should gather before complaining or instructing solicitors.
A break option can look like a clean exit from a commercial lease, but the law treats it as a condition to be satisfied precisely. This guide explains the common technical failures, the conditions that attach to break rights and a practical checklist for serving notice before the deadline passes.
Sales proposals often blend fact, forecast and aspiration. For UK SMEs, the distinction matters: an overconfident claim can become an actionable misrepresentation. This guide explains the legal line and sets out practical safeguards for 2026.
A will can transfer ownership of property, but it does not automatically unlock email accounts, cloud storage, social media profiles or crypto wallets. This practical guide explains the probate gap around digital assets and what individuals and small business owners can do in 2026 to give executors a workable route through it.
Paying a designer's invoice buys you the files, not necessarily the rights in them. This guide explains how copyright in a logo, website or brand identity can remain with the freelancer, why an unwritten licence is a poor substitute for an assignment, and what a small business should put in writing before the brief is issued.
A sales manager signs a supply agreement; an administrator confirms a variation by email; a branch employee accepts a quotation. None has board approval, yet the company may still be bound. This explainer sets out how apparent authority works in UK contract law and how SMEs can check authority before a casual yes becomes enforceable.
Texts, emails and WhatsApp exchanges can satisfy the legal tests for a binding agreement, even where neither side intended a formal document. This explainer sets out when informal messages cross the line, the evidence that matters in a UK dispute, and practical habits for keeping routine chat from creating unintended obligations.
The words ‘subject to contract’ are often treated as a guaranteed shield against premature liability. In practice, they are only as strong as the conduct that surrounds them. This guide explains where the phrase protects a small business, where it can be outflanked, and how to keep negotiations from turning into an accidental contract.
A debt can be beyond argument on the merits and still be unenforceable because too much time has passed. This explainer sets out how limitation periods work for everyday UK contract debts, why a single friendly email or a token payment can start the clock again, and what both sides should record before putting anything in writing.
Illness, an accident or a death can leave a one-person business frozen in place: clients unable to reach anyone, files locked in a laptop, invoices unpaid and accounts unreachable. Because a sole trader has no separate legal identity, the business does not carry on by itself. This guide sets out the documents and records that bridge the gap.
A retention of title clause is often the only thing standing between an unpaid supplier and a queue of unsecured creditors. But the clause that reads well in your terms and conditions is not always the clause that survives an administrator's scrutiny. Here is how the mechanism works, where it fails, and what to fix before you need it.
A personal guarantee can turn a limited company’s borrowing into a director’s personal liability. This guide explains all-monies and continuing clauses, what to negotiate before signing, and how to respond when a lender makes demand.
The without prejudice label is often treated as a guarantee of confidentiality, but UK courts look at substance rather than headings. This opinion-led guide explains the difference between genuine settlement talks and open correspondence, common mistakes, and a practical protocol for protecting negotiations.
Fences, hedges and title plans often tell different stories. This plain-English guide explains what boundary paperwork actually proves, how to build a useful evidence trail, and when mediation or formal action is the sensible next step.
A single large customer can flatter turnover while quietly creating existential risk. This guide sets out the early signals of payment distress, the contractual tools available to SMEs, and the point at which polite chasing should give way to formal recovery.
A contract can look routine while quietly transferring cost, risk and control away from your business. This review sets out five clauses that deserve particular attention in 2026 and offers a practical checklist and negotiation language for SMEs.
A letter before action can resolve a debt or boundary dispute without proceedings, but it can also be an expensive way of announcing a weak claim. This disputes guide sets out when pre-action correspondence is worth the fee and how to avoid empty threats.
Employment reform is not only a payroll problem. It reaches into contracts, shift scheduling, leave requests and dismissal decisions. This practical checklist helps small businesses prioritise the changes that matter before the next pay cycle.
There is no such thing as a common law spouse in England and Wales. Unmarried partners can share a home, a family and a life without gaining automatic rights on separation or death. Here is what the law does not provide—and what couples should put in place instead.