As owners and managers of SME’s the team at Business Information UK know how important it is to keep on top of legal matters when running a smaller business, after all it is not as if you have access to an in-house legal team.

Where can I get Legal Advice for my business?

This section of our website contains articles about various aspects of business law. These articles include details of the legal requirements of running your own small business such as the different types of business, navigating through the complexities of employment law, requirements of showing information on documents, company information on websites, health and safety advice including what to do in the event of an accident at work and information regarding CDM Co-ordinators and why you may need one.

It also covers company returns and how working time or fire regulations may effect your business, helps you to understand where you stand legally with E-cig use in your building, and maternity and paternity rights , and holiday entitlements as well as advice on how to choose the right solicitor for your company needs, and how to make sure that you comply with the law in regards to your commercial vehicle use, and disguised employment, plus many other subjects including how to choose the right international law firm for your business if you wll be doing business in America, Asia or Europe and how to ensure you comply with the IFRS for SME Regulations and your obilgations as an employer regarding employment rights and the DDA for your disabled staff.

Common questions which crop up again and again are:

  • Who owns the shares in your business and what what happens if one of the shareholders leaves or dies?
  • A spouse of a deceased share holder may want to sell those shares but the company might not have the money to purchase them.
  • How do you value the shares in small close company?
  • Who owns the intellectual property right to the products, services or ideas on which your business is based?
  • What what happens if this person dies or want to leave the company and start their own business?
  • How do you value your business [or part of your business]?
  • Do I need to be CRB checked and how do I go about doing it?
  • What are my obiligations regarding the provision of Personal Protection Equipment?
  • What is a CHAS assessment, and do I need one?

You will need legal advice to plan and prepare for these events:

Business Link or Community Legal Advice are two of the best places to start for any new business that needs advice or support. They will have a panel or list of existing solictors or lawyers with the relevant expertise and skills to answer your questions. Contracts [with staff, customer and suppliers] and Copyrights are some of the most important on which you may wish to focus.

These may seem unneccessary expenses when you are only just starting your business but if you have problems further down the line or are fortunate enough to be approached by someone wishing to buy your business it will be money well spent.