This checklist sets out the practical steps that will help your business protect, use and exploit any brands that it owns.

Disputes over contracts can be expensive, stressful and time consuming – more importantly they can usually be avoided by ensuring that you have properly drawn up terms and conditions of business.

Prudent businesses need to consider every means to protect themselves against non-payment of invoices by their customers and one option is the use of a ‘retention of title’ clause.

This article sets out the the advantages and disadvantages of franchising for the franchisor

A recent high-profile case of EDS v BSkyB has demonstrated the importance of following proper procedures when completing a bid, tender or informal pitch.

If you take on a franchise, you will invest a great deal of time and money into the franchised business and the franchisor will be making a substantial commitment to you.

On 1 October 2009, the final instalment of the Companies Act 2006 came into force. The latest changes:

Break provisions allow tenants and landlords the right to terminate their lease before the expiry of a fixed term.

The introduction of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) for almost all commercial buildings in October 2008 aimed to improve the energy performance of buildings and, eventually, for EPCs to have a significant impact on the value placed on eco-friendly buildings.

With all businesses looking to cut costs at the moment, some tenants have been failing to keep their properties in a good state of repair.

Since the abolishment of empty property business rates relief last year, most landlords benefit from only three months grace for non-industrial premises and six months for industrial premises before having to pay the full amount of business rates.

Whether you decide to remain in your existing premises or move, those tenants who prepare their strategy well in advance of the end of their Lease will reap rewards particularly in the tenant's market which currently prevails.

This article sets out the actions your business should take when a dispute or potential dispute arises. It applies to any dispute or incident, whether started by you or brought against you (for example, a dispute with a trading partner or a prosecution by a regulatory body).

Shareholder relationships have been likened to a commercial marriage with similar personal and financial stress resulting from a relationship breakdown.

This Article sets out the key issues your business should consider before providing a reference for an employee or former employee.

If your business is making redundancies, you must be very careful when drawing up the pool of employees from which you make your selection. Failure to consider the pool is likely to make a dismissal unfair. This checklist highlights the key issues that you need to consider.

A salary sacrifice arrangement involves an employee giving up part of their entitlement to salary which is subject to income tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs), in exchange for a new or enhanced non-cash benefit, which benefits from a full or partial exemption from tax and/or NICs

This article sets out the types of schemed available to employers and their key business benefits.

There are a number of reasons why you, as an employer, might need to obtain a medical report on an employee. The most common reasons for doing so are to consider whether an employee, who has taken a substantial number of short-term intermittent absences, is suffering from any underlying medical condition or to obtain a prognosis concerning the likely timescale within which an employee who is on long-term sickness absence is likely to return to work.

What is the right?

An eligible employee whose child is due on or after 3 April 2011 will have the right to apply for up to six months' additional paternity leave (APL) before their child's first birthday.

What is the right?

From 6 April 2010 a new right for employees to request time off work for study or training will come into force. It will initially apply to businesses with 250 or more employees and will be extended to all employers, regardless of size, from April 2011.

With businesses looking for opportunities to reduce costs, what should employers consider when the economy suffers a downturn?

A new centralised vetting and barring system introduced by the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) came into force on 12 October 2009, as a response to the Bichard Inquiry following the Soham murders in 2002.

Legislation protects residential tenants from excessive service charges. Before entering into contracts to provide services or carry out works relating to residential properties, you should consider whether you need to consult with your tenants. If you fail to consult when required, you will only be able to recoup the statutory maximum, without dispensation from the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT). 

As a leaseholder of a flat or a house, you currently own a depreciating asset and as the term of your lease gets shorter the value of your property diminishes relative to its length and this can mean that your property is less marketable as a result as some mortgage lenders require that a lease must be of a minimum length before they are willing to fund a purchase.

The Government has recently announced a new code of conduct for alcohol retailers. This checklist will help you keep track of the implementation dates for the five new mandatory licensing conditions.

If you are contemplating divorce, then a particular area of concern is likely to be your pension. Perhaps you have a pension that you wish to protect or maybe your spouse has a pension that you believe you are entitled to part of.

Are you concerned about what would happen to your child if you were to separate from your partner?

During a divorce, your solicitor will seek to achieve a fair financial settlement on your behalf. Where you or your spouse is a shareholder in a privately owned business it will be necessary to value the business in order to achieve that "fair" settlement.

Contrary to popular belief, legally there is no such thing as a 'common law marriage'.

Have you ever thought about what would happen to your wealth if you were to marry, and then get divorced?

Perhaps you have already built up a successful business or received inheritance that you want to protect from division in the event of a divorce.

This checklist highlights the key features of the law that governs work on a party wall. It summarises the steps for existing walls, new walls and excavation works. It also explains the consequences of failing to follow the correct procedures.

 From 1 October 2010, legislation will come into force in England that increases the annual rent threshold for an assured tenancy to £100,000. At the moment, a tenancy cannot be an assured tenancy if the rent is more than £25,000 a year. These tenancies are known as “common law tenancies”.  

With repossession properties being sold on average at a third less than their market value, and in some instances even less, you are right to think that they offer excellent opportunities to investors, developers, first time buyers and a wide range of purchasers.

Anyone wishing to put their house on the market should shop around for their Home Information Pack.

In all the excitement surrounding a marriage or civil partnership ceremony, one of the few issues that is often forgotten is that a will is automatically revoked when someone marries, which means that it is no longer valid. 

If you are approaching or already in retirement and have found that your pensions, savings or shares are not worth as much as you had anticipated, then you may have considered whether an equity release plan could help. 

Naturally your first consideration in making a will is to take care of your family and friends.

You have been asked to be someone's executor, what does this mean?

When someone dies, the executor's job is to deal with the administration of that person's estate, including ensuring that the terms of the will are carried out.