Canter Levin & Berg is a friendly firm and our solicitors and other legally qualified staff are experts in their particular areas of law. The breadth and quality of the service we provide to our clients is recognised by our Lexcel accreditation Several of our solicitors have been accredited by the Law Society for their expertise and the high standards of client service they provide.
From personal injury law, family and employment law through to wills and probate, commercial disputes and financial mis-selling, we are here to meet your legal requirements, whatever they may be.
Here on our website you can find out more about the individual areas of law we specialise in, including our “no win no fee” and fixed fee legal services.
If you have a specific enquiry, or you would like to speak to one of our solicitors or other experienced staff, contact Canter Levin & Berg now on 0151 239 1000. Alternatively, you can leave your details by completing the online enquiry form at the top of this page and we will call you back.
We have been providing legal services since 1947 so you can be confident that our experience makes yours better.
Keep up to date with our social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You can contact us now.
As the availability of legal aid funding for family law cases has been reduced in recent years, we now offer fixed fee family law services for new clients, removing the uncertainty over legal costs that can deter many people from seeking the professional legal advice they need.
Whatever your family law issue, we aim to provide you with professional legal advice to help you when you need it the most. We appreciate that family law advice is often needed at a time when you might be feeling extremely emotional or vulnerable, but it can make all the difference to your situation and the outcome of your case.
Our family solicitors and family law experts aim to give you clear and concise advice, so that you are fully informed and you are able to make a decision about how you want your family law case to proceed.
For many years the family solicitors at Canter Levin & Berg have been helping people who have encountered problems, for whatever reason, in their family life. Our family solicitors and their support staff have established a reputation for providing a professional and understanding service to our family law clients, many of whom are facing very difficult domestic situations such as cases of domestic abuse or child custody disagreements. We use our expertise to ensure that our clients achieve an outcome that successfully deals with their family law issues.
We understand that this is likely to be a very stressful time and we will provide you with friendly, sympathetic and, above all, balanced and professional advice to make sure that your best interests are protected. We know that you are undoubtedly very upset about what has happened and we will take this into account when providing you with efficient and practical advice.
It can be tempting to think of family solicitors as dealing only with divorce or the legal issues surrounding the breakdown of a relationship. However this is not the case; in fact we deal with a wide range of problems faced by families each and every day. Our family law service combines expertise with a caring approach dedicated to ensuring that vulnerable people, whether they are children or adults, receive the very highest standards of family legal advice and assistance to help them with the family problems they might be facing.
In reality there are many other situations where you might benefit from the services of a qualified family solicitor. Our family solicitors have extensive experience providing legal advice for children and adults who have suffered from abuse in a domestic environment. We also provide family law advice in cases surrounding the custody of a child, where there may be disputes over custody arrangements between parents or guardians.
As family law solicitors, we understand that many people will look for family law advice in situations when they might be very distressed, upset or concerned. At times like these, when you obviously have a lot on your mind, it can be difficult to think clearly and to make the best decisions in situations where you might have a lot at stake. The professional family law experts at Canter Levin and Berg are here to make sure that you have access to the best possible legal advice during these difficult times.
We have provided a full range of legal services throughout the pandemic and will continue to do so. We can arrange online consultations and have a great deal of experience in dealing with remote court hearings.
We are here to provide you with practical and sympathetic help. Call us on 0151 239 1000 or complete the enquiry form at the top of this page and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Even if you were partially to blame for an accident, our No Win No Fee service can still help you claim compensation – not only for financial losses, such as medical expenses or loss of earnings, but also for any pain, mental trauma or inconvenience you may have suffered.
As soon as you get in touch with the team here at Canter Levin & Berg, we will start our investigations into your accident to see if you have the grounds to claim No Win No Fee personal injury compensation. Once we’ve established that you do have a case to claim compensation from the person or organisation responsible for your injury, our personal injury law experts will begin assembling your claim.
Throughout your compensation claim, we will provide you with regular updates – so you know exactly what is happening with your case and what progress has been made. Your allocated personal injury law expert will inform you immediately if there has been an important development in your claim, for example, when the defendant admits liability for your personal injury or when an offer of compensation is put forward.
At Canter Levin & Berg, our personal injury claims solicitors treat each and every accident victim as an individual and we assess every personal injury claim on its own merits. We know that whether you’ve been involved in a road traffic accident, slipped in a supermarket or you have suffered a life-changing injury in a major industrial accident, you will want the best possible outcome for your claim.
It is our aim to make sure that all personal injury claims we make meet the needs of our clients, not just in terms of the compensation we recover, but also by making sure that any claim provides them with the means to afford any future care costs or changes to their lifestyle that they might need to make to take account of their injuries.
Our specialist employment law solicitors can provide you with professional legal advice on topics ranging from the queries you might have about a new contract when you are starting employment, through to dealing with harassment in the workplace, advising you on a potential redundancy situation and negotiating the terms of a settlement agreement or amicable exit package.
Fixed price services for employment law
In addition to providing a fixed price initial consultation service for £120 inclusive of VAT*, we are happy to provide you with a quote for fixed price employment law services for both employees and employers. You can find full details of the services and prices here.
Subscription service for employers
We also operate a separate service, Canter Levin & Berg Employment Solutions, which provides employers with access to employment law support. This service is available at a fixed monthly fee, with prices starting from £99 per month (plus VAT*) for instant access to professional employment law advice and bespoke document drafting from one of our solicitors. Also visit our blog for the latest employment law news, targeted at SMEs.
Our expertise and experience
Whether you are an employer or an employee, the expertise our solicitors bring to any employment law matter means that if you choose to use Canter Levin & Berg Solicitors, you can be confident your problems will be sorted in a professional, affordable and timely matter.
At almost any point from negotiating over a contract of employment, through to leaving employment, there are times and situations when you might need the expert legal advice an employment law solicitor can provide. Further examples of the issues commonly faced by employees in the workplace include discrimination, bullying, unfair disciplinary procedures, ill-health and redundancy.
Here at Canter Levin & Berg, we can help you to deal with difficult situations at work. Our experienced solicitors will be able to advise you about your rights as an employee, as well as pointing out the courses of action open to you to get changes made within your workplace. In situations where you no longer feel you can stay in your current role then we can help to guide you through the Employment Tribunal and, if necessary, Employment Appeal Tribunal process.
Contact us now
Call 0151 239 1000 today to speak with a member of our team or complete the enquiry form on this page and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Alternatively, if you’d like to meet in person with one of our employment solicitors here at our Liverpool City Centre offices, we can arrange an initial meeting to discuss your case, at a fixed price of £120 (inclusive of VAT*) for a 30 minute meeting. We also provide online and phone consultations.
Whether it is the finer points of a non-compete clause, or a situation where you feel you have been passed over for promotion on account of your age, gender, race or sexual orientation, whatever the problems you are having at work, our experienced, knowledgeable solicitors can help.
*VAT is charged at the applicable statutory rate, currently 20%.
Please note that we do not currently use conditional fee or damages based agreements for employment work.
Our wills and probate solicitors are renowned for providing sensitive, practical and efficient legal services at what is often a very difficult time for our clients. Our wills & probate lawyers will be able to help you with any private client law issues you might be facing, providing professional private client law advice across a range of topics covering wills and probate as well as estates, inheritance tax advice, lasting and enduring powers of attorney and the legal implications of long term care for yourself or for an elderly relative.
We can make a standard will for you for a fixed price of £145 plus VAT*.
We provide standard mirror wills for £245 plus VAT*. Mirror wills are virtually identical wills where, typically, one person in a couple leaves their estate to the other and vice versa. A standard mirror will will leave everything to their spouse and then their children.
We can provide you with a quote for complex wills, for example those involving numerous properties, trusts, international assets or other complicating aspects.
We provide a fixed fee for a grant of probate (where there is a will) or letters of administration (where there is no will) for £500 plus VAT* and expenses (sometimes called disbursements and typically around £200) for estates with a gross value under £1m and the majority of the assets transferring to a surviving spouse or civil partner. For estates where the gross value is over £325,000 and no assets are being transferred to a surviving spouse or civil partner the fee is £850 plus VAT* and expenses.
We provide Lasting Powers of Attorney for £350 plus VAT* for one document or £550 plus VAT* for two documents.
Please contact Candice Jones (0151 239 1198 / [email protected]) or complete the enquiry form on this page for a no obligation quote.
Further information about our fixed fees is available here.
Our private client lawyers can help you with a range of legal issues you might be faced with. Our approach to private client law is focussed on providing our clients with top quality legal advice to help them to manage their affairs, or those of living or deceased relatives. Here at Canter Levin & Berg Solicitors our private client lawyers can help you when it comes to drafting a will, dealing with the process of obtaining Probate, executing a will, the administration of a dead person’s estate and also with matters concerning the care of living relatives.
The professional expertise of a private client lawyer can help you to avoid many of the problems commonly encountered by people when dealing with this area of law without the benefit of professional legal advice. Particularly common issues our private client lawyers come across can include problems in a will that may make it invalid or that may cause unexpected problems if family members have been left out unintentionally. Affording care in old age, whilst also safeguarding your home, is another area of private client law that can cause confusion for people who don’t have a private client lawyer working for them.
The private client law section here on the Canter Levin & Berg website contains more detailed information on some the various services we can provide for our private legal clients. If you would like more information on an aspect of private client law not covered on our website, you can call our private client lawyers for a consultation or alternatively you can fill in the contact form here on the website and a member of our client law team will get back to you to discuss the matter.
For an initial consultation please call our private client team on 0151 239 1000 who will be able to provide you with answers to the questions you might have regarding private client law or complete and submit the enquiry form at the top of this page.
*VAT is charged at the prevailing rate, which is currently 20%.
At Canter Levin & Berg we provide a wide range of commercial law and litigation services for businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals throughout the England and Wales. Our team of expert lawyers are some of the leading solicitors in the region for various disciplines, including commercial litigation and sports law.
The sole aim of our solicitors at Canter Levin & Berg is to provide you with the solution you require in a quick and cost-effective manner, allowing you to focus your energies where they really matter whilst being confident in the knowledge that your legal matters are in the hands of experts.
We also provide a customised employment law service for SMEs with the great advantage of a monthly subscription for general advice
If you would like to find out how we can help you and your business please call us on 0151 239 1000 or allow us to call you at a convenient time by completing the form at the top of this page and we will contact you.
Intellectual property disputes can stop your business in its tracks, particularly for start-ups. It’s vital to make sure that your great idea for your business is both legal and protected.
Intellectual property – the patents, trademarks, inventions and images used by your business are vital assets. If you are involved in a dispute over the infringement of intellectual property, our commercial and litigation solicitors can help.
Intellectual property is a concept in law that is used to describe creations of the mind. As a business owner, this can include things that you or your business has invented and designs or concepts you have created.
Intellectual property can also refer to the things your business uses to establish its identity to others, including the brand names of the products you sell and trading styles your business trades under, as well as the logos, symbols and images it uses.
Although your business might not produce them, it is also worth noting that literary works and pieces of art also count as intellectual property or the writer or artist who created them.
The laws in England and Wales, together with EU and international law, provide different rights and protections to your intellectual property. EU laws remain relevant if you intend to conduct business in the European Union. What these rights and protections are will generally depend upon what type of intellectual property is in question. Below, we’ve summarised the five main categories of legal protection afforded to the intellectual property of your business.
Copyright Protection
If you have created a literary or artistic work, then as the creator of that work, you will have certain rights, known as copyright. Whilst most people will know that copyright covers works including books, music, paintings, sculptures and films, what some business owners might not realise is that it can also cover computer programs, databases, adverts, maps and technical drawings.
The legal concept of copyright gives you two different types of rights. Firstly, as the creator of a piece of work covered by copyright, you or your business has economic rights, meaning you are allowed to derive financial reward from the use of your copyrighted works.
Secondly, as the creator you have certain moral rights which allow you to claim authorship of your works, to oppose any changes to your work that might harm your reputation, and also to authorise the use of your work or to place restrictions on how it can be used by others.
Patents
As a business owner, you may create a new product or process in the course of running your business. If this is the case, then you can apply for a patent, which is an exclusive right granted to protect the intellectual property of your invention.
In order to get a patent granted on your invention, you must put in all the relevant technical information in the patent application. Your patent application can be viewed by the general public, through services such as Ipsum, the Online Patent Information and Document Inspection Service.
If your patent application is successful, then you will usually receive exclusive rights which you can enforce to stop others from exploiting your invention commercially. As the patent holder, you have to give consent to others before they can make, use, distribute, import or sell your patented invention.
We recommend using patent attorneys for preparing and submitting patent applications. If you contact us, we can refer you to reputable patent attorneys.
Trademarks
The concept of trademarks has developed over thousands of years, dating back to times when craftsmen would put their unique signature or mark on the things they made. In the present day, trademarks are signs which are used by a business to distinguish its goods or services from those of other business which may offer similar products.
A trademark will protect your intellectual property by conferring exclusive rights to your or your business over the use of your trademark. Usually this protection will last for 10 years, after which time you will have to renew it (or lose it).
These days trademarks don’t necessarily have to be a sign. They can be any combination of words, letters, or numerals. Increasingly, companies are also applying trademarks to drawings, symbols and the particular styles of packaging they use. It is also possible to apply a trademark to other assets that are particular to your business or the products you produce, including fragrances, colour shades or even sounds.
Industrial Designs
An industrial design describes the look of a product that your business makes, this includes its shape, the surface used and any aesthetic features. Industrial designs also cover patterns, lines and colours used on the product. The industrial design of a product is what makes it attractive and appealing to consumers so it is important to protect your industrial designs in order to protect the commercial value of your product.
The protection of the intellectual property of an industrial design in the UK is covered by both European Union and UK laws. This will effectively remain so following Brexit, particularly if you want protection in the EU.
The EU laws apply to community designs, where a design is “the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and/or materials of the product itself and/or its ornamentation”. A design that is in some way novel, or one with an individual character, can be protected under the EU law for 3 years, or for up to 25 years if it is specifically registered.
There are also additional protections available under UK law for Design Rights, and Registered Designs. Design rights, for example, offer 10-year protection for the shape, internal and external dimensions of an original design.
Geographical Indications
The fifth major type of protection for an item of your intellectual property is a Geographical Indication. A Geographical Indication is a sign that can be used on goods made by an individual or a business if they have a specific geographical origin and possess, in the words of the World Intellectual Property Organization “qualities, a reputation or characteristics that are essentially attributable to that place of origin”. Examples include Parma Ham and Melton Mowbray pork pies.
Geographical indications are most commonly applied to food and drink, but they can also be used to protect other products. Protecting a product based on a geographical indication involves one of three approaches, a special regime of protection, the use of a certification or a mark or an alternative method which focuses on the business practices involved in creating the product that is to be protected.
