Yes, you can do all sorts of legal work yourself, just as you can do your own plumbing or re-wire your house. There are an increasing number of Web Sites offering "standard" legal documents and for some types of document they would be fine, but remember the old adage "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing".

You may want to do your own divorce. You may spend hours reading the guidance documents (if they are supplied) and if you can follow them you end up preparing your own divorce petition. However, leave out a crucial line and your divorce may not be able to proceed. Leave out a different section and you are prevented from pursuing a financial claim (how much would that cost you?).

You have found business premises and the Landlord offers you a business lease. You do not need a Solicitor do you? It has been prepared by the Landlord's Solicitors, what could possibly go wrong? You can read English and you can see it includes what is needed and in particular that option you wanted to buy the freehold. It is therefore a bit of a surprise when the Landlord starts charging VAT on top of the rent. When you go to exercise the option you find it is invalid because it was not registered. Have you wasted all the time and money invested in the business….

We accept it is entirely possible for someone to write their own Will. However, a Will must be executed in the proper manner or it is invalid. Often, a mistake is discovered too late and there is nothing that can be done about it. What value do you put on making sure your beneficiaries are not disappointed, or worse, angry?

Some work traditionally done completely by Solicitors can in straightforward cases be handled by you with some assistance from a Solicitor on a fixed fee basis. For instance, some Small Claims Court actions and obtaining a Grant of Probate in a simple estate.