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Employment Tribunal

• You are thinking of resigning because of how your employer has treated you — A resignation can be treated as a dismissal if your employer seriously broke your contract. What counts, why the order you do things in matters, and the deadline that applies.
• You have left a job and your final pay or holiday pay has not been paid in full — Unpaid final pay is a debt your former employer owes you. What it should include, when a deduction is allowed, and the order to do things in before the tribunal clock runs out.
• You have missed, or are close to missing, the deadline to appeal an employment tribunal decision — A reconsideration application does not stop the clock on your EAT appeal deadline. A case decided this month shows just how strictly that rule is still enforced.
• You've been offered a settlement agreement and don't know whether to sign — A settlement agreement only becomes legally binding once six specific conditions are met. Here's what to check before the deadline on the letter runs out.
• ACAS early conciliation has ended without an agreement — The certificate doesn't close the door on your claim. It reopens the clock — and tells you, in writing, exactly how long you now have to decide what to do next.
• You work for the NHS and something's wrong at work — More than 1.5 million NHS staff hold Agenda for Change contracts. Here is what those contracts add on top of your statutory rights — and what to do if your trust crosses a line.
• You drive or deliver for an app and your employment status is unclear — The Supreme Court confirmed that the label on your contract is not the last word. Many platform couriers are workers with real rights — including NLW, paid holiday, and protection against detriment.
• Your hearing date is months away — Workers with valid claims are being told their hearings will not happen until 2029. The system has not collapsed — but the wait has become the injury. Here are the practical steps that matter while you wait.
• You're deciding whether to hire a solicitor — The short answer, for most people, is no. Self-representation is the intended route for the majority of employment claims. But some cases become complex enough that a solicitor adds real value.
• You're representing yourself at the tribunal — Most people imagine an employment tribunal as a televised courtroom. The reality is closer to a meeting around a table. The system was built for people doing this without a lawyer — here's how to do it well.
• You've just been dismissed and the clock is running — The Employment Tribunal sees thousands of out-of-time applications every year. Almost all are dismissed. The claimants are not frivolous people — they simply did not know the clock started on the day they were dismissed.

Small Claims

• You cancelled something you bought online and the seller won't refund you — A returns policy is the seller's promise; the 14-day right to cancel is the law. The three deadlines under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, what a seller can deduct, the exceptions sellers stretch, and the route to a small claim.
• Your flight was delayed or cancelled and the airline has refused to pay — An airline's reply that the delay was outside its control is a conclusion, not a reason. When UK261 applies, what it pays per passenger, the extraordinary circumstances defence, and the route from complaint to small claim.
• A car you bought from a dealer has developed a fault — Whether you can hand a faulty car back depends mostly on who sold it and how long ago. The Consumer Rights Act timeline, the rule that is different for cars, and what to do when the dealer will not engage.
• A client has stopped paying your invoice — From the day payment became late, a business-to-business debt earns statutory interest, and a fixed sum is added on top. What to calculate, what to send, and when a small claim makes sense.
• You have a County Court Judgment but the other side has not paid — Getting a judgment is only half the job. If the other side ignores it, you have to choose and pay for your own enforcement action, and none of it is guaranteed to work.
• The company you're suing has gone into liquidation or been dissolved — The claim you built is still there. The company you built it against might not be. What their Companies House record actually tells you, and the different route each status means for getting paid.
• You paid a tradesperson a deposit and the work never started — The start date slipped, the excuses thinned, and now the phone goes to voicemail. The deposit is not lost — the law offers several routes back to it, in order of effort.
• A neighbour's tree or fence has damaged your property — The fence line doesn't decide who's liable. What your neighbour knew about the tree does, and that's the test the law actually applies.
• You lent money and the borrower won't repay it — No paperwork doesn't mean no debt. An oral loan is a contract, and the small claims court reconstructs what was agreed from the transfer, the messages, and what happened next.
• You've been sent a county court claim form — The envelope from the court sits unopened on the side. Every day it stays there, the claim inside it gets stronger — not because the other side's case improves, but because yours goes unheard.
• The person you're suing has ignored your letter — Silence from the person who owes you money is not a dead end. Once the response deadline passes without a defence, the small claims process starts working in your favour.
• A company won't return money it owes you — A withheld deposit is one of the most straightforward small claims cases there is. Here is how to recover it, with interest, regardless of whether the other side agrees.
• A builder left work unfinished or badly done — The builder turned up, did the work, took the money, and left. Now the extension is leaking. The legal route is more winnable than most homeowners realise — but only with the right evidence in place.
• You won your case but still haven't been paid — The court issues a judgment. It does not send you a cheque. What happens next is up to you — and the enforcement machinery is more powerful than most winners realise.

Renters' Rights

• Your landlord has given you a Section 21 notice and you are not sure whether you have to leave — A Section 21 notice served since 1 May cannot get a landlord a possession order, and one served earlier lapsed unless a claim was issued by 31 July. The first council fine, what a lawful Section 8 notice looks like, and what to do with the notice you have.
• Your landlord has locked you out, or is trying to force you to leave without a court order — Lockouts, removed belongings, cut-off utilities and threats: what counts as illegal eviction, what to do in the first hours, and the council fines, rent repayment orders and court orders that follow.
• There is a clause in your tenancy agreement you think is unfair — Rent review clauses, banned fees, repair opt-outs and one-sided terms: how the Renters' Rights Act 2025, the Tenant Fees Act 2019 and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 decide whether a clause binds you.
• Your shared house should have a licence and you think it does not — How to tell whether your HMO needs a licence, how to check the council register, why you should keep paying rent, and how a rent repayment order works since 1 May 2026.
• A landlord or letting agent turned you down over a Right to Rent check — Two revised Home Office codes came into force today. What they say about ID apps, failed face scans, eVisas and holding deposits, and where to go if a check was used to turn you away.
• Your landlord has refused, or ignored, your request to keep a pet — The Renters' Rights Act gave tenants a real right to ask for a pet from 1 May 2026. Five months on, here's what the 28-day rule actually means and why the promised Ombudsman still doesn't exist.
• Your landlord has served you a Notice to Quit — The letter says “Notice to Quit” in bold at the top. For most tenants today, that document is legally worthless — here's how to check which rules actually apply to you.
• You want to leave and your landlord says you can't — Your landlord insists you signed a fixed term and can't just leave. Since 1 May 2026, that's rarely true anymore — here's how tenant notice actually works now.
• Your landlord is charging you for damage you didn't cause — The deduction letter feels like a closed decision. It is only an opening position — and the check-in inventory, dated photos, and betterment rules are what turn a dispute you feel is unfair into one you can actually win.
• Your landlord served a Section 8 notice — A Section 8 notice is not a court order. It is the start of a process — and at almost every step, there is something a tenant can do.
• Your landlord is ignoring repairs — Most tenants assume they just have to wait. They do not. Two separate legal duties bind every private landlord in England — and the Renters' Rights Act 2025 adds a third layer of enforcement, some of it in force since 1 May 2026.
• Your landlord wants to raise your rent — Most tenants who receive a rent increase letter assume there is nothing they can do. The tribunal process exists for exactly this situation — and the worst it can do is confirm the figure your landlord already asked for.
• Your landlord kept your deposit — £169 million is lost every year in deposit disputes. Most tenants do not fight because they do not know the rules. The rules are on your side more often than landlords assume.

Scam Refund

• Someone has taken out a loan, credit card or account in your name — What to do when a loan, credit card or phone contract appears in your name: telling the lender, reporting to Report Fraud, the FCA rule that makes the lender prove the debt is yours, correcting your credit files, Cifas, a CCJ you never knew about, and the Financial Ombudsman Service.
• Someone has contacted you offering to recover money you lost to a scam — How recovery room scams work, why the caller knows so much about your loss, how to check a firm on the FCA register, the free routes through your bank and the ombudsman, and what to do if you have already paid.
• There's a payment on your account you didn't make — What counts as an unauthorised payment, the next-business-day refund rule, the £35 cap, who has to prove gross negligence, and how to take a refusal to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
• You think you're being scammed right now — The scammer's only real asset is the next sixty seconds. What to do, in order, from the moment a conversation starts to feel wrong — and what the rules give you if the money has already gone.
• You moved your money to a “safe account” — The caller knew your name, your bank, and exactly what to say. Moving the money was the scam itself — and the reimbursement rules were written for precisely this call.
• You paid for something online and it never arrived — The listing looked normal and the seller had reviews. Whether this is fraud or just a bad seller changes which door you knock on next — and how you paid decides the route.
• Your bank only reimbursed part of your scam loss — Some money back can feel like a win, until you realise nobody has explained how the bank reached that number. Here is how a partial refund is actually built, and how to challenge it.
• You made the payment yourself — You pressed send yourself — and that feels like the end of the argument. Under the mandatory reimbursement scheme, it is only the beginning: the bank has to show that a narrow exception applies before it can refuse you.
• You paid someone posing as your solicitor — Fraudsters intercept conveyancing emails and redirect your mortgage funds to their own account. The PSR scheme means your bank should reimburse you — but you have to know how to claim.
• Your bank blamed you for the scam — Banks use gross negligence to refuse scam refunds. The bar is much higher than they suggest — here is how to push back.
• Your bank refused a romance or investment scam refund — Romance and investment scams target trust, not gullibility. The people who fall victim are sustained by professional-grade deception. The law recognises this — even when the first letter from the bank does not.
• Your bank refused your scam refund — Banks write their refusal letters to sound final. They are not. The PSR mandatory reimbursement scheme and the Financial Ombudsman Service exist precisely for this situation.