Hiring a solicitor is one of those tasks that every business will eventually need to get involved with. A solicitor handles most of your business’s legal-related matters, such as dealing with settlement agreements with employees, litigation disputes, investment properties and even family-related services in some cases.
In fact, most people don’t actually know when you should be hiring a solicitor. Some people think that solicitors should be a part of your team (which makes sense if you’re constantly in need of legal assistance) while others believe that they should be hired on a per-case basis. It’s also important not to get confused with what a solicitor is. In most cases, a solicitor is a type of lawyer that gives legal advice and represents you in courts. In most cases, they’ll help you deal with contract and business-related matters but can also assist with family matters such as wills and inheritance.
But regardless of what you know about solicitors, we’re going to show you a couple of great instances where hiring a solicitor (or having one ready to help you) can make a lot of sense for your business.
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Commercial services
Business solicitors have a lot of knowledge and experience with most commercial services. This can involve starting up businesses of all different sizes, or even putting your trust in a solicitor to help you manage your business and its legal matters. They can also help when it comes to certain property concerns, such as leases for commercial premises or even the purchase and sale of commercial property.
Commercial solicitors can also help you facilitate a number of different business transactions. For example, they can help you with large deals between major corporations, they can help you with government-related concerns such as meeting specific regulations, and they can also help you buy and sell other businesses. In some cases, you may need to speak with a commercial solicitor if you want to dissolve your business and leave gracefully.
You’ll also find that commercial lawyers can deal with some employee-related issues like fraud. However, there are special employment lawyers that might be able to help you better.
Employment-related disputes and services
Employment solicitors help you manage anything related to the employment at your business. For instance, if you’re having a dispute with a particular employee about pay, discrimination or even their benefits, then bringing in an employment lawyer is usually enough of a deterrent to get them to back down. This is usually the case if you believe that they’re either in the wrong or taking advantage of you. However, if they do take it to court and sue you, then having a specialised employment solicitor represent you is going to make things much easier to handle.
You should also be contacting an employment solicitor if you believe that there’s been a breach of contract or conduct that could negatively affect your business. Perhaps an employee broke an NDA on a service of product which led to negative press. You could potentially press charges or at least exercise some business right to help you recover.
Lastly, we can’t forget that employment-related disputes can be solved with these solicitors. This can include workplace discrimination cases, redundancy and unfair dismissal, or even transferring entire teams from one location to another. As long as it’s something related to your staff, an employment lawyer can help you make good legal decisions.
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Litigation lawyers
The term litigation just means to take legal action so it’s a rather general term that can mean a lot of things. However, in most cases, litigation experts will help provide you with ongoing advice for resolving disputes related to your business. This could even include going to court with other businesses. If it’s something to do with copyright, fair usage and plagiarism then a copyright solicitor might be a better option.
Litigation lawyers can cover a wide range of different bases, but their exact definition can change a little depending on who you actually ask. So here are a couple of examples of when you’d contact a litigation lawyer.
- Confronting another business about an unpaid invoice or contract breach that they refuse to take responsibility for.
- In the event that another business or individual from a business is purposely writing defamatory things about your business, its employees or its products and services.
- Suing for damages against another business or individual in the event that they’ve done something to purposely harm your business and its employees.
- Helping your employees with accident claims that involve their work, such as being injured while on a business trip or claiming compensation due to the negligence of another party.
As you can see, there are lots of different examples where a litigation lawyer can come in handy.
Copyright solicitors
Next, we have copyright solicitors. These solicitors will help you deal with any situation where you believe that your intellectual property has been infringed on. For instance, if another company has blatantly copied your logo or has stolen the design of your product, then contacting solicitors that specialize in copyright will help ensure that you not only protect your brand but can also sue for damages caused to your brand.
If you allow another brand to infringe on your copyright, then there’s a chance that you might lose it especially if you’re failing to defend it adequately. Simply having the rights to something doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you get to keep it. With the help of expert solicitors to help you defend it, you’ll have a lot more peace of mind.
If you believe that another individual is infringing on your copyrights then we suggest you contact a copyright lawyer immediately to get advice on what to do next. In most cases, this will generally involve a cease and desist letter. However, if the entity decides to ignore it, you should consider taking legal action before it has a chance to negatively affect your real brand.
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Investing in property
While property investments can often fall under commercial solicitor services, there are a couple of occasions where you’d want a property solicitor to help you instead of a general commercial one. A great example of this would be contacting local property solicitors to help you decide on a great place to start a real estate business. You could also network with nearby solicitors and bring them on board to help you establish a presence in the local property market. You might also need to speak with solicitors when it comes to understanding different property laws that might be different from what you’re used to.
Keep in mind that property solicitors aren’t just about buying and selling properties. They can help you find the right commercial spaces to get your business started, but they can also help with residential property services or even the management of a certain property. Real estate litigation can also be a factor where you’ll likely need to speak with a professional investments solicitor. We highly suggest you contact your nearest solicitors to find out what kind of property or investment-related solicitors they have as this can be a difficult and confusing subject to grasp.
Family services
Lastly, we can’t forget about family services. While it’s never pleasant to think about, there are times when your workplace could get in the way of an employee’s family life or vice versa. In these kinds of situations, it’s best not to try and handle a situation on your own because you’ll likely be affected by your emotions. This is why it’s important to have a trained family solicitor to help you and your business cope with a variety of different family-related matters.
While family law isn’t something that most businesses are concerned with, there are occasional times where family legal services can actually help your company run smoothly. Most of these situations involve helping out others, such as a person in your workplace. Maybe they’re struggling with their child law-related problems, such as divorce. In this situation, it’s good to offer that person support while also providing them with legal assistance to fight their case and return their productivity to normal so they can continue being an effective team member.
Hopefully, this article has shown you some great examples of when you should be hiring a solicitor for your business-related matters. It’s important to know who your local solicitors are and it’s worth getting in touch with them as early as possible. As you work with different solicitors, you’ll learn that some of them can specialize in different areas of law and are more suitable for certain matters. This is why there are solicitors that advertise themselves as “copyright lawyers” or “family lawyers”. While they can handle most legal-related matters, you should try to only hire them for their area of expertise.
Whatever the case is, we hope that you’ll have an easier time defending your business from law-related concerns with this advice.
