Contract dispute advice

I advise businesses on contract disputes for a fixed fee from £895: a written advice note on what the contract means, whether it has been broken, what you can do about it and what I recommend, within five working days. I am Geoffrey Caesar, a solicitor of England and Wales admitted in 2008, working on commercial contracts since 2001. I act for businesses across England and Wales.

A supplier has not delivered what it promised. A customer has stopped paying and says the work was not what was agreed. The other side reads a clause one way and you read it another. Or you want to end an agreement and are not sure you can.

What happens in the first few weeks shapes the outcome. A payment withheld without a contractual right, a termination on the wrong ground, or a letter that overstates your case can hand the other side the better argument. Before anything goes to the other side, you need a clear view of where you stand. That is what this service gives you.

What it costs

Dispute advice, £895. A written advice note on a dispute under a single contract: what it means, whether it has been broken, your options and my recommendation. Five working days.

Dispute advice and a letter to the other side, £1,295. The advice note, plus a letter or notice setting out your position, ready to send in your own name or sent by me on your behalf. Five working days.

Complex dispute, £1,995. For a dispute involving several contracts, a long history of correspondence, claims running in both directions, or a large sum at stake. The advice note and a letter to the other side are both included. Five working days.

If you are unsure which you need, send me the contract and a short account of what has happened, and I will tell you before you pay anything.

Tell me who the other party is when you first email. I check for conflicts of interest before I take on a dispute.

What you get

• A review of the contract and the documents that bear on the dispute: correspondence, orders, invoices, notices and anything else that shows what was agreed and what has happened
• A written advice note on what the contract means on the points in dispute, whether either side is in breach, what can be claimed or recovered, and any time limit that matters
• A view of the strengths and weaknesses on each side, including where the other side has a point
• A clear recommendation on what to do next, and on what to avoid doing in the meantime
• With the letter options, a letter or notice to the other side, drafted from the advice and ready to send
• One round of follow-up questions on the advice note, included

What is not included

• Court proceedings, including issuing or defending a claim
• A formal letter before claim under the Civil Procedure Rules
• Correspondence or negotiation after the other side has replied, which I quote separately once I have seen their reply
• Instructing a barrister
• Intellectual property infringement disputes and employment tribunal claims
• Recovering an unpaid invoice that is not in dispute
• Receiving or paying out a settlement sum, since I do not hold client money
• Advice on the law of any jurisdiction other than England and Wales
• Tax advice

How long it takes

Five working days from payment for each option, counted from the day I have the contract and the documents I need. If you are working to a deadline, for example one set in a letter you have received, tell me in your first email.

How to instruct me

1. Email me. Send the contract, the key correspondence and a short account of what has happened, in whatever format you have them, and tell me who the other party is.
2. I confirm the scope and the fee. Usually the same working day, in writing, once I have checked for conflicts. If a call would help before you decide, I will offer one at no charge. Once you confirm, I send my invoice.
3. I start work as soon as payment is received. I will be in touch if I need anything further, and I deliver on the stated turnaround, counted from the day I have everything I need.

How I look at a dispute

What the contract means. The starting point is the words the parties used, read in the context of the contract as a whole and the facts known to both of them when it was made. The Supreme Court has made clear that commercial common sense does not override clear words, but where the wording is open to more than one reading, the court prefers the one that makes commercial sense: see Arnold v Britton [2015] UKSC 36 and Wood v Capita Insurance Services Ltd [2017] UKSC 24. A term is implied only where it is necessary to make the contract work or so obvious that it goes without saying (Marks and Spencer plc v BNP Paribas Securities Services Trust Company (Jersey) Ltd [2015] UKSC 72).

Whether it has been broken, and how badly. Not every breach lets you end the contract. The right to terminate comes from the contract itself or from a breach serious enough to be repudiatory, and a party that terminates without that right can find that it is the one in breach. Withholding payment carries the same risk unless the contract or the law allows it.

What can be recovered. Damages for breach of contract aim to put you in the position you would have been in had the contract been performed, subject to the rules on remoteness and the duty to mitigate your loss. Limitation and exclusion clauses often decide how much of that is recoverable, and in a contract between businesses some of them must satisfy the reasonableness test in section 11 of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. Where an invoice is unpaid, statutory interest may run under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 unless the contract provides a substantial remedy of its own.

Time limits. A claim for breach of contract must usually be brought within six years of the breach, or twelve years where the contract is a deed, under section 5 and section 8 of the Limitation Act 1980. Many commercial contracts impose much shorter periods for notifying a claim, and missing one can end a claim regardless of its merits.

What to do next. Litigation is meant to be a last resort. The Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct and Protocols expects the parties to exchange enough information to understand each other's position and to consider settling before anyone issues a claim, and the courts can order parties to engage in mediation or another form of dispute resolution (Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council [2023] EWCA Civ 1416). My recommendation is usually about the right first step: often a letter setting out your position and asking for what you need, sometimes a without prejudice offer to settle, and sometimes a decision that the dispute is not worth pursuing.

Why instruct me directly

You deal with one senior lawyer from first email to final document. The work is done personally, the contact is direct, and the price is published before you ever get in touch.

• Senior attention as standard. I handle your matter throughout. Nothing is delegated to a trainee.
• In-house and private practice experience. I know what a clause does to a business six months later, not just what it says.
• Onboarding that takes one email. Email me, send the documents, get the advice. There is no client portal to register with; the checks I need to run happen quickly in the background.
• Stated turnarounds, met. Most work is delivered in three to five working days, stated up front, and priority turnaround is there when the clock is against you.
• Fixed prices, published. You know the number before you commit. I publish them because cost uncertainty is the main reason businesses do not take advice they need.

Who this is for

• A supplier or customer has not done what the contract requires
• You have been told you are in breach and are not sure you are
• You want to end a contract and need to know whether you can, and how
• An invoice is disputed, or a customer is withholding payment over a complaint
• You are a consultant or contractor in a dispute with a client over fees or scope
• You have received a letter before claim and need to understand your position

Questions I am often asked

How much does contract dispute advice cost?

£895 for written advice on a dispute under a single contract, in five working days. £1,295 with a letter or notice to the other side as well. £1,995 for a complex dispute, with the advice note and the letter both included. The price is fixed in writing before work starts.

Do I have a claim worth pursuing?

That is the question the advice note answers. Sometimes the answer is that you have a good claim, sometimes that the other side's position is stronger than it looks, and sometimes that the claim is sound but not worth the cost of pursuing. You get my view either way, before you commit to anything further.

Will you take the case to court?

No. I advise on disputes and write to the other side, but I do not issue or run court proceedings. If a dispute does go to court, my advice note and any letter are written so that a solicitor who conducts litigation can pick the matter up from there.

Should the letter come from me or from you?

It depends on the relationship and on how far the dispute has gone. A letter in your own name keeps the tone commercial and can help preserve a relationship you want to keep. A letter from a solicitor shows that you are taking the matter seriously, and replies then come to me. I recommend one or the other in the advice note.

Someone has sent me a letter before claim. What should I do?

Send it to me as soon as it arrives, with the contract and the correspondence, because these letters set a period for your reply. I will advise on the claim and on how to respond. Do not ignore it: under the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct and Protocols, a court can take a failure to respond into account when it decides who pays the costs.

Can I stop paying, or stop work, until it is sorted out?

Not without advice. Withholding payment or suspending work without a contractual or legal right to do so can put you in breach yourself, and can give the other side grounds to end the contract. The advice note tells you what the contract allows.

What if nothing was signed?

A contract does not usually need to be signed, or even written down, to be binding. Its terms can be found in emails, quotes, purchase orders and the way the parties have dealt with each other. Working out what the terms are is part of the advice.

What do you need from me?

The contract, or whatever documents make it up, the correspondence that matters, any invoices or notices, and a short timeline of what has happened. Tell me who the other party is, so that I can check for conflicts. You do not need to sort or summarise anything beyond that.

About me

I am Geoffrey Caesar. I have worked on commercial contracts since 2001, first in industry and then in private practice, so I have sat on both sides of the table: as the in-house lawyer who has to live with the contract, and as the external adviser who drafts it.

• Solicitor of England and Wales, admitted 2008. SRA ID 483394.
• Practising as an SRA-regulated freelance solicitor under regulation 10.2(b) of the SRA Authorisation of Individuals Regulations. Practice SRA number 666497.
• Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and authorised to provide all legal services, including reserved legal activities.
• Called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 2005.
• Working on commercial contracts since 2001, in-house and in private practice.
• Acting for businesses across England and Wales.
• Professional indemnity insurance in place with a limit of £1,000,000 for each claim, with defence costs in addition. Details on request.
• I do not hold client money.

Two things you should know about instructing a freelance solicitor rather than a law firm. My professional indemnity insurance is not on the SRA's minimum terms and conditions; alternative arrangements are in place instead, and I will give you the details on request. And you can still apply to the SRA Compensation Fund for losses caused by dishonesty or a failure to account for money. Everything else, including the Code of Conduct, the SRA Principles and the Legal Ombudsman, applies to me exactly as it applies to any other solicitor.

Related services

• Contract review, £495
• Your own customer or supplier terms, £995
• Consultancy and contractor agreements, £595

Last reviewed: October 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.