Our Editorial Standards and Review Process

At Frodshams, we publish legal information to help people understand their options at moments that often matter a great deal — making a will, dealing with an estate after a death, separating from a partner, arranging care for a relative, or buying a home.

These are rarely straightforward situations, and the information available online is often unclear, out of date, or written for other lawyers. Our content is designed to explain the law in plain English, set out what a process actually involves, and help you decide what to do next.

To make sure everything we publish meets that standard, we follow a structured editorial and review process that governs how our content is written, checked, published and kept up to date.

What these standards cover. They apply to the guides in our resource library — the articles you reach from our Resources section. Our service pages describe what we do rather than explaining the law, and are being brought in line with these standards separately.

Our Editorial Principles

Every guide in our resource library is created with the following principles in mind:

• Accuracy. Information is checked against the law in force in England and Wales at the date of legal review.
• Clarity. Written for people, not for lawyers. Legal terms are explained where they are unavoidable.
• Usefulness. Content answers the questions people actually ask, including the ones about time and cost.
• Transparency. Every guide shows who wrote it, which solicitor reviewed it, and when it was last updated.
• Accountability. Frodshams LLP is responsible for everything published here.
• Compliance. Content is produced in line with our obligations as a firm regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Our aim is to inform and support, not to pressure anyone into instructing us. Where a guide explains something you can do yourself, it says so.

Who Writes Our Content

Our guides are written by named contributors, each with a profile page setting out their role and background. Nothing is published anonymously.

Some content is written by our solicitors directly. Other guides are written by our content team, who research the subject, work with the relevant department, and draft the guide in plain English. In every case the substance of the legal information is the responsibility of a qualified solicitor, not the writer.

Our content team do not give legal advice. Where a guide carries a byline from a non-solicitor, it will always also carry the name of the solicitor who reviewed it.

We do not publish guidance produced from automated output alone. Where software assists with research or drafting, the sources are checked and the legal content is reviewed by people before anything is published.

How Our Content Is Created

Guides are researched and drafted using:

• Legislation in force in England and Wales, together with the relevant court and procedural rules and case law where it applies.
• Official guidance from GOV.UK, HM Courts & Tribunals Service, HM Revenue & Customs and HM Land Registry.
• Guidance from professional and regulatory bodies, including the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Law Society, STEP and Resolution.
• The practical experience of our own fee earners in handling these matters day to day.

That last point matters. Published guidance tells you what the rules are; our solicitors can explain how a process runs in practice, the practical factors that affect how long it takes, and where people commonly get stuck.

Professional Review by a Qualified Solicitor

Every guide in our resource library that explains a legal process, right or obligation is reviewed by a qualified solicitor before it is published.

The reviewing solicitor checks that:

• The legal position is stated correctly and is current at the date of review.
• The process described matches how the matter is actually handled.
• Nothing is misleading by omission, oversimplification or emphasis.
• Any figures, thresholds, time limits and fees are correct at the date of review.
• The guide makes clear where individual circumstances would change the answer.

The solicitor who carried out that review is named on the page, along with the date they reviewed it. If a guide requiring legal review has not completed that review, it is not published.

Authorship and Dates

Every guide shows three things:

• Written by — the named author.
• Reviewed by — the qualified solicitor who checked it, and the date they reviewed it.
• Last updated — the date of the most recent substantive change.

These two dates mean different things, deliberately. Last updated changes whenever the guidance itself changes; it is not moved for a corrected typo or a formatting fix. The review date changes only when a solicitor has re-reviewed the guide. So a recent review date always means a solicitor has looked at that content on that date, and not merely that somebody edited the page.

Keeping Information Up to Date

Legal information goes out of date. Thresholds change at Budgets, court fees rise, procedural rules are amended, and case law shifts how a rule is applied.

We monitor published content and review a guide when:

• Legislation, court rules or official guidance change.
• Fees, thresholds or time limits are updated.
• Our own experience suggests a process now works differently in practice.
• A reader tells us something is unclear or wrong.
• A guide reaches its scheduled review date.

Areas that change frequently, such as inheritance tax thresholds and stamp duty rates, are reviewed more often than areas of settled law.

Sources and References

Where a guide relies on a specific rule, figure or piece of guidance, we cite the source and link to it, so you can check the primary material yourself.

We reference authoritative sources only: legislation, government departments, courts and tribunals, regulators, and recognised professional bodies. We do not cite other law firms' marketing content as a source of law.

Independence and Transparency

Our editorial content is:

• Written to explain your options, including the ones that do not involve instructing us.
• Free of undisclosed commercial arrangements, paid placements or affiliate links.
• Clear about the difference between general information and advice on your own situation.

Where a guide mentions a service we offer, it is identified as such.

General Information, Not Legal Advice

The guides on this site provide general information about the law in England and Wales. They are not legal advice and do not create a solicitor–client relationship.

Law is fact-sensitive. Two people in apparently similar situations can have very different options, and a guide cannot account for the details of your circumstances. Please do not rely on anything you read here as a substitute for advice on your own matter.

If you would like advice specific to your situation, contact us and we will tell you how we can help and what it will cost.

Regulation

Frodshams LLP is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA number 8009505. Our professional obligations, including those relating to the information we publish, are set out in the SRA Standards and Regulations.

If you are unhappy with our service, our complaints procedure explains how to raise it with us and, if we cannot resolve it, how to escalate it to the Legal Ombudsman.

Feedback and Corrections

If you think anything on this site is unclear, out of date or wrong, please tell us. We assess every report, correct genuine errors promptly, and update the review date when a solicitor has re-checked the content.

Our commitment is ongoing: to publish legal information that is accurate, clearly written and genuinely useful to the people who need it.