Setting up a business involves complying with a range of legal requirements. Find out which ones apply to you and your new enterprise.
Every business needs to be aware of its obligations under minimum wage and equal pay laws, as well as recent pensions auto-enrolment changes.
What particular regulations do specific types of business (such as a hotel, or a printer, or a taxi firm) need to follow? We explain some of the key legal issues to consider for 200 types of business.
While poor governance can bring serious legal consequences, the law can also protect business owners and managers and help to prevent conflict.
You must comply with legal restrictions on employees' working hours and time off, or risk claims, enforcement action and even prosecution.
The right employment policies are an essential part of effective staff management. Make sure any policy is clear and well communicated to employees.
Whether you want to raise finance, join forces with someone else, buy or sell a business, it pays to be aware of the legal implications.
While sick employees need to be treated fairly, you need to ensure that 'sickness' is not being used as cover for unauthorised absence.
Marketing matters. Marketing drives sales for businesses of all sizes by ensuring that customers think of their brand when they want to buy.
Most pregnant employees are entitled to maternity leave and maternity pay, while new fathers are entitled to paternity leave and paternity pay.
Commercial disputes can prove time-consuming, stressful and expensive, but having robust legal agreements can help to prevent them from occurring.
As well as undermining morale, illegal discrimination can lead to workplace grievances. Employee discrimination is covered by the Equality Act 2010.
Whether your business owns or rents premises, your legal liabilities can be substantial. Commercial property law is complex, but you can avoid common pitfalls.
Home, remote and lone workers are becoming increasingly commonplace. Key issues include communication and how to manage and motivate people remotely.
With information and sound advice, living up to your legal responsibilities to safeguard your employees, customers and visitors need not be difficult or costly.
The right approach to consulting with and providing information to your employees can improve employee motivation and performance.
As information technology continues to evolve, legislation must also change. It affects everything from data protection and online selling to internet policies for employees.
Disciplinary and grievance issues can be a major burden to employers. Putting in place and following the right procedures is essential.
Following the right dismissal and redundancy procedures helps protect your business and minimise the risk of a legal dispute at tribunal.
Intellectual property (IP) isn't solely relevant to larger businesses or those involved in developing innovative new products: all products have IP.
Employment tribunal claims are a worrying prospect for any employer. A tribunal case is a no-win situation – even if the claim is unjustified.
Knowing how and when you plan to sell or relinquish control of your business can help you to make better decisions and achieve the best possible outcome.
From bereavement, wills, inheritance, separation and divorce to selling a house, personal injury and traffic offences, learn more about your personal legal rights.
The UK's road traffic laws are designed to promote road safety and to protect members of the public. The laws are relatively inflexible to make it easier for the authorities to prosecute offenders, hand out fines and disqualify dangerous drivers.
Legal arguments in road traffic cases often focus on how harsh the sentencing should be. Should someone be disqualified for six months, 18 months, or not at all? A joy-rider speeding is vastly different from a nurse who is caught speeding after having been unavoidably delayed on her way to a shift on an emergency ward. All sorts of factors can make a court pass a tougher, or more lenient, sentence.
Much of the law is complex and technical. When defending a case, a lawyer will often focus on whether the authorities followed the correct procedures at every stage of the legal process. If they have not, the charges may be invalidated.
More than 700,000 traffic offence cases pass through the courts each year, mostly in the magistrates' courts, with the more serious offences being dealt with in the Crown Court. [Source: Ministry of Justice; 2019]
Penalties vary and range from being sent on a speed awareness course or the addition of penalty points on your license to the issuing of a fine all the way up to imprisonment. Many traffic offences carry a range of penalty points. While some involve obligatory disqualification from driving, in many cases the courts have the choice of whether to disqualify or not.
If you accumulate twelve or more penalty points in a three-year period, you are liable to a minimum disqualification for six months, unless you can demonstrate that this would cause you exceptional hardship.
If you are facing proceedings in the courts for a driving offence, you should seek expert legal advice about your prospects of a defence and the likely penalties in the event of conviction.
Going to court can be a stressful experience. Make sure you are prepared in advance and remember to take:
Make sure you arrive at court in plenty of time. If you are at risk of being disqualified from driving, do not drive yourself to court as any disqualification will take effect immediately.