Churchers Services For Business

After serving local businesses for over 130 years, we’ve developed a sound reputation and deep roots across the south.

Whether your business is a start-up taking those first tentative steps or a long-established player, we can help you.

While we’re on hand to help when things go wrong, our focus is on prevention. We will work with you to identify and address any risks before they become costly problems.

If you are in need of some legal advice but not sure to what level, pop into our Business Advice drop in session where a lawyer will be on hand to assist, no appointment necessary, alternatively we also offer a free business consultation over the phone, click here for further details on both.

We also recognise that some wording used by solicitors and other third parties can be confusing, so we would like to explain some of the more common legal business jargon to make running your business a little easier.

Contract
A contract is an agreement that commits you or your business to a course of action. It is important that you ask your solicitor or business adviser to explain any terminology that you do not understand to ensure you completely understand what you are signing.

Conditions
This is a major term in a contract. Conditions are the basis of any contract and if one of them fails or is broken, the contract is considered breached. These are different to warranties (the other type of contract term) which are less important and will not usually lead to the breach of the contract - but rather an adjustment in price or a payment of damages.

Warranties
These are the promises made in a contract, but are less than a condition. Failure of a warranty results in liability to pay damages but will not be a breach of contract unlike not meeting a condition.

Breach of contract
Failure by one party to a contract to uphold their part of the deal. A breach of contract will make the whole contract void and can lead to damages being awarded against the other party.

Arbitration
Using an independent third party to settle a dispute out of court. The arbitrator must be agreed by both sides. Contracts often include arbitration clauses nominating an arbitrator in advance.

Confidentiality agreement
This is an agreement made to protect confidential information if it has to be disclosed to another party. This often happens during negotiations for a larger contract, when the parties may need to give information about a project to each other. They are also known as a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

Employment contract
If you are employing someone then you need a contract between your business and the employee. This differs from other contracts in that it is governed by employment legislation - which trumps normal contract law.

Liability
A person or business deemed liable is subject to a legal obligation. A person/business who commits a wrong or breaks a contract is said to be liable or responsible for it.

Limited liability
This usually refers to limited companies where the owners' liability to pay the debts of the company is limited to the value of their shares.

GDPR
This stands for General Data Protection Regulations.  This new law came into play in May 2018.  Businesses now have stricter rules to follow when collecting and processing customer data. If a business is not following the rules then there are fines in place.

Mergers and acquisition
Mergers and acquisitions are transactions in which the ownership of a company is transferred or consolidated. A merger usually involves two businesses joining together to become one bigger business. An acquisition is when one business takes over another business sometimes known as a takeover.

Insolvency
A company is insolvent when it is unable to meet its debts when they fall due, and/or when their liabilities (monies owed) exceed their assets (things they own).

Liquidation
Liquidation is the legal process of bringing a business to an end and distributing its assets to claimants (people they owe money to), which occurs when a company becomes insolvent.