Terms and Conditions

Effective date: 12 November 2026

Legal Buddha

These terms govern your use of legalbuddha.com and each answer, document service or expert information call you buy through Legal Buddha, wherever you are located. The service uses one-off payments rather than subscriptions, and questions, answers, documents and calls are handled as private service communications. Please read these terms before purchasing.

1 Who we are

Legal Buddha provides the service described in these terms through legalbuddha.com. In these terms, "we", "us" and "our" mean Legal Buddha.

Legal Buddha is an online legal information and educational service. It also offers limited practical assistance with documents, as described in section 3.3. It does not provide legal advice, legal opinions or legal representation. The operating company of Legal Buddha is not authorised as a law firm in England and Wales and does not provide regulated representation. Using Legal Buddha does not create a lawyer and client or solicitor and client relationship or retainer with us or with an expert. The service does not provide the regulatory protections that apply when instructing a regulated law firm or lawyer, including, in the United Kingdom, access to the Legal Ombudsman or the SRA Compensation Fund, or any equivalent complaints, compensation or insurance scheme in another country, in relation to our service.

You can contact us through the support function in your Legal Buddha account.

2 Who may use Legal Buddha

You must be at least 18, or the age of majority where you live if that is higher, and legally capable of entering into a contract. You may use the service for your own purposes or for an organisation you are authorised to represent. If you are acting wholly or mainly outside your trade, business, craft or profession, you are a consumer and the consumer protections described in these terms apply to you.

Legal Buddha is available to customers in any country, except where we are prohibited from providing it. You may not use the service if you are located or ordinarily resident in a country or territory, or are a person, subject to sanctions that prohibit us from providing it to you. You are responsible for making sure that using the service is lawful where you are.

You must give accurate and complete information and tell us promptly if material facts change. An answer can only address the facts, documents, jurisdiction and question you provide.

When you submit a question, please say in it which country, and where relevant which state, province or other part of that country, your question relates to. Information provided in response relates to the law of the jurisdiction it refers to and does not address the law of any other jurisdiction unless it expressly says so. If you do not say which jurisdiction your question relates to, or your matter involves more than one, the information may not apply to your situation.

3 The services

Legal Buddha provides individually prepared legal information and non-reserved document assistance through its online platform. All substantive responses and services are prepared or performed by directors or employees of its operating company. Although you submit enquiries and receive responses electronically, the services themselves involve human assessment and preparation rather than automated answer generation. The website is the online platform through which you submit questions, make payments, communicate with us and receive completed responses.

3.1 Written answers

You may submit a question without charge. We make your question available to our verified experts. We cannot promise that an expert will be available for every jurisdiction or that every question will be answered. A question remains open until a verified expert takes it on. An expert may prepare a written answer, but you are charged only when you choose to unlock it. The price for unlocking an answer is £15 unless a different price is clearly shown before purchase. The paid contract is formed when we accept your payment, and the answer is then made available to you.

A written answer explains the legislation, legal procedures and legal principles that may be relevant to the situation you describe, and the options that may generally be available in that kind of situation. It does not determine your legal position, give a legal opinion or recommend what you personally should do (see section 6).

3.2 Follow up messages

After you unlock an answer, the thread remains open for seven days from the time of purchase. During that period, you may ask reasonable follow up questions that genuinely relate to the original issue. A new or materially different issue is not included and may require a new question or a separate paid offer. The seven day messaging period does not reduce any statutory right or prevent you from making a complaint about the paid service.

3.3 Document explanation and document preparation assistance

During an open thread, you may request document explanation or document preparation assistance. These additional information services are priced individually according to the nature, complexity and amount of assistance requested. There is no fixed hourly rate, page rate or automatic pricing formula. Before any work begins, the expert assesses your request and sends you an upfront offer setting out the total price, the work, any assumptions, the expected delivery time and any included revisions. You may accept or decline the offer, and no chargeable work begins unless you accept and pay for it. An offer may be amended or withdrawn before acceptance. Once accepted, its scope can be changed only by agreement.

Document explanation helps you to understand a document: its wording, clauses and terminology, the general effect or purpose of its sections, information that may be relevant, and, where appropriate, obvious omissions or inconsistencies. It is not a legal opinion on the document. We do not certify that a document is legally valid, determine whether it is enforceable, advise whether you should sign it, assess litigation prospects or guarantee that it is legally sufficient.

Document preparation assistance is practical help preparing letters and non-reserved documents based on the information and instructions you provide. We do not determine your legal position and then prepare a document asserting it as professional legal advice.

You may edit, sign and use a document prepared for you for the matter described in the offer. We may refuse work that falls outside our service or would involve a reserved or otherwise regulated legal activity.

We provide document explanation and document preparation assistance only where we are satisfied that the work is permitted under the law that applies to it, including the law of the jurisdiction your question relates to. Where we are not satisfied of this, we will refuse the request or narrow it before making an offer.

3.4 Expert information calls

An expert information call request costs £25 unless a different price is clearly shown before you submit it. An expert information call lets you obtain further explanation of general legal information, legal rules, procedures, requirements, terminology and available options. It is not a legal consultation or a legal opinion. A call must not be used to determine your individual legal rights or liabilities, assess the merits or prospects of your case, or recommend a personal legal strategy or course of action. If a call moves into those areas, the expert will explain that this is outside the service and will return the discussion to general information. When you request a call, your payment method may be authorised but will not be charged unless an expert accepts the request. If the request is declined, the authorisation will be released, although your bank may take time to remove it. If accepted, payment is taken and the call will be arranged. The expert may call from a withheld number. Calls are private between you and the assigned expert, subject to the limited disclosures described in these terms and the Privacy Policy. Legal Buddha does not record calls.

3.5 Availability and deadlines

Any delivery time is an estimate unless an accepted offer expressly makes it binding. Do not use Legal Buddha for an emergency or where waiting could cause you to miss a court, tribunal, appeal, limitation, visa or other deadline. We do not monitor your matter or remind you of deadlines after delivering the specific service purchased.

3.6 Private and confidential service

Questions, answers, follow up messages, uploaded documents, document work and calls are treated as private and confidential service communications. They are not posted publicly, made visible to other customers, indexed by external search engines, used for advertising or used to train artificial intelligence models. Access is limited to you, the expert assigned to the matter (who can also see your earlier questions and the answers given to them, as described in the Privacy Policy), authorised Legal Buddha personnel where necessary, and service providers that need the information to operate the service, all subject to the Privacy Policy and any disclosure required by law.

Legal Buddha does not use automated systems to scan or analyse the substance of service communications for security, abuse detection or content moderation. The assigned expert assesses submitted content manually. If the expert identifies suspected misuse, illegality, a serious safety concern or a breach of these terms, the expert may refer it for proportionate manual review by authorised personnel. Ordinary technical operations such as storing, transmitting, backing up and controlling access to data, and payment or network-security checks performed by relevant providers, are not content review.

4 Our experts

Experts are vetted under Legal Buddha's own internal process. The words "verified" or "legal expert" mean that we have completed that internal vetting. They do not mean that the expert is approved by a legal regulator. An expert may use a professional alias.

All information, explanations and assistance provided through Legal Buddha are prepared and delivered exclusively by directors or employees of its operating company. In these terms, "expert" means a director or employee who provides customer services through Legal Buddha. Legal Buddha does not engage independent contractors, external freelancers or third-party experts to deliver customer services.

Each expert must have the knowledge, qualifications or experience appropriate to the subject matter and jurisdiction of the enquiry, and must provide information only about the law of jurisdictions in which they are suitably qualified or experienced. Before taking on an enquiry, the expert must confirm that it falls within their competence and within the permitted scope of the Legal Buddha service. Where an enquiry falls outside that scope, it may be reassigned internally to another suitably qualified director or employee, or declined. An expert may be located in a country other than yours.

The operating company remains responsible for the services provided through Legal Buddha.

An expert providing information through Legal Buddha does not act as your solicitor, advocate, immigration representative or other legal representative. Using Legal Buddha does not create a solicitor-client, lawyer-client or other professional retainer between you and an expert.

Experts provide information only within the scope of the Legal Buddha service and must not provide representation, reserved legal services or other regulated services through the platform. Each expert is bound by written obligations requiring confidentiality, appropriate protection of personal information and use of customer content only for the assigned matter. We remain responsible for our own obligations to you under these terms.

We will describe a person as a solicitor, barrister, CILEX professional, attorney, advocate, immigration adviser or holder of another regulated status in any country only where we have verified that status and it is lawful to use the description. Any experience or qualification stated on an expert profile relates only to that individual. A regulated title or qualification does not mean that the expert is acting for you in that regulated professional capacity through Legal Buddha.

5 Regulatory limits on the service

Legal Buddha does not undertake reserved legal activities, or any activity that the law of the relevant jurisdiction restricts to licensed, authorised or regulated professionals. In England and Wales, this includes exercising rights of audience, conducting litigation, carrying out reserved instrument activities, probate activities, notarial activities and administering oaths. Legal Buddha does not provide legal opinions of any kind, whether paid or unpaid, and does not carry out any activity that the law of the country where its operating company is established reserves to advocates, solicitors or other authorised legal professionals. We do not solicit or accept instructions for regulated legal services or legal representation in any jurisdiction, and an expert must not use Legal Buddha to form a retainer with a customer.

We do not provide immigration advice or immigration services in any country. We may provide general legal information about the immigration law of the United Kingdom or another country, but we do not act as an immigration representative, submit applications, appeals or administrative reviews, correspond with UK Visas and Immigration, the Home Office or any other immigration authority on your behalf, or represent you in any immigration matter. Where an immigration question includes individual facts, we may explain which general rules, requirements or procedures may be relevant to the situation described, but we do not determine eligibility or recommend a particular immigration course of action. We will refuse, stop or narrow any request that would require regulated immigration advice or services, any other reserved or regulated activity, create a conflict of interest, be unlawful, or be unsuitable for this service.

We do not act on the court or tribunal record, file or serve documents on your behalf, accept formal service, conduct litigation, hold client money, negotiate as your legal representative or represent you in any court, tribunal or other proceedings. Legal Buddha will not enter into a separate agreement to provide those services.

6 Nature and limits of the information provided

Information provided through Legal Buddha is general legal information and practical information only. It is not professional legal advice, a legal opinion or a recommendation as to what you personally should do. It is not a substitute for advice from a legal professional who is suitably qualified and authorised in the relevant jurisdiction, acts for you and has reviewed all relevant material.

Information you provide about your circumstances may be used to identify and explain general legal rules, procedures, requirements or options that may be relevant to the situation described. You receive explanations of the law and of the procedures and options that may be relevant, not a determination of your legal position. Legal Buddha and its experts do not determine your legal rights or liabilities, assess the merits or prospects of your particular case, or recommend a specific legal strategy or course of action.

The law and official procedures can change. An answer is prepared by reference to the information and law reasonably available when it is supplied. We do not promise a particular result. You remain responsible for deciding what action, if any, to take, including decisions, filings, negotiations and deadlines in your matter. Where your circumstances require professional legal advice, representation or a regulated service, you should consult an appropriately authorised professional.

Our promise to handle service communications privately and confidentially is a contractual and operational commitment. Using Legal Buddha and communicating with us or an expert does not create a lawyer and client or solicitor and client relationship, a retainer or a fiduciary relationship. No legal professional privilege arises in communications through Legal Buddha. Do not upload material that is already confidential or privileged unless you are entitled to disclose it and have considered whether disclosure could waive or otherwise affect that confidentiality or privilege.

7 Pricing and payment

Prices are set and charged in pounds sterling and include any VAT or similar tax we are required to charge. Where we show an amount in another currency, it is an estimate for your information only. The amount shown on the payment page before you pay is the amount you will be charged. Your bank or card provider may apply its own exchange rate or charge fees for currency conversion or international payments, which are outside our control. Stripe processes card payments. We do not receive or store your full card number.

The prices for unlocking an answer and for an expert information call are the published prices shown before you buy. Document explanation and document preparation assistance are individually quoted, as described in section 3.3. You buy each service directly from Legal Buddha's operating company, which receives the payment for its own services. Stripe processes payments for us. We do not collect payments on behalf of experts or any other person, and we do not hold client money.

Every purchase is a separate, one-off transaction. Legal Buddha does not offer a subscription, membership, paid trial, automatic renewal or recurring charge. You are charged only for a purchase that you actively accept, subject to the temporary card authorisation for an expert information call described above.

If you choose to save a payment method, it may be used only for a later separate purchase or other charge you actively authorise. Saving a payment method does not authorise repeat billing. We will show the price before you commit to a charge.

After a distance contract is made, we will provide confirmation on a durable medium, normally by email, together with these terms and the information required by law.

8 Cancellation rights and starting work immediately

If you are a consumer, wherever you live, you will normally have 14 days from the day after the contract is made to cancel a distance contract without giving a reason. The rules differ where digital content is supplied immediately or a service begins or is completed during that period. If the law of the country where you live gives you greater cancellation rights, those rights still apply.

At checkout, we ask you to take a separate positive action before you can pay: ticking a box that is not ticked for you. The statement next to the box depends on what you are buying. We keep a record of the statement you ticked, its version and the time you ticked it, and we quote it back to you in your confirmation email. The three statements are as follows.

Unlocked answers (digital content)

I expressly consent to receiving immediate access to the digital content I am purchasing and acknowledge that I will lose my statutory 14-day right to cancel once access begins.

Document services (document explanation and document preparation assistance)

I expressly request that Legal Buddha begins providing my purchased service during the 14-day cancellation period. I understand that once the service has been fully performed, I will lose my statutory right to cancel. If I cancel before completion, I may be required to pay a proportionate amount for work already carried out, in accordance with applicable law.

Expert information calls

I expressly request that Legal Buddha may provide my booked telephone consultation during the 14-day cancellation period. I understand that once the consultation has been fully provided, I will lose my statutory right to cancel. If the call is unsuccessful, Legal Buddha's automatic payment cancellation policy will apply.

The automatic payment cancellation policy in the last statement works as described in section 3.4: your payment method is only authorised when you request a call. If the request is declined, or is not accepted before the authorisation lapses, the authorisation is released and you are not charged. If an accepted call does not take place because the expert does not attend, section 9 applies.

Where an unlocked answer is digital content, supply begins when the answer is made available to you. If you gave the express consent and acknowledgement in the statement for unlocked answers, the statutory cancellation right is lost when supply begins.

Where your purchase is a service, you may cancel during the 14 day period before it has been fully performed. If you expressly requested an early start, we may deduct a proportionate amount for the service supplied before you cancelled. The cancellation right is lost once the service has been fully performed, but only if you made the express request and acknowledged that consequence.

To cancel, use the support function in your account and include a clear statement that you wish to cancel. You may use the model form at the end of these terms, but you do not have to. We will make any refund due within 14 days after being told of the cancellation, using the original payment method unless agreed otherwise.

Nothing in this section removes your rights where a service or digital product is faulty or was not supplied with reasonable care and skill.

9 Service standards and statutory remedies

We will perform services with reasonable care and skill. If we fail to do so, consumers in the United Kingdom may be entitled under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to repeat performance or an appropriate price reduction, which can be up to the full price. Consumers in other countries may have similar rights under the law of the country where they live. Other legal remedies may also apply.

If an expert fails to attend an accepted expert information call, we will offer a reasonable replacement appointment or refund the call fee. If paid work cannot be supplied within an agreed time, contact us so we can provide the remedy required by law.

10 Accounts and acceptable use

You are responsible for keeping your login details secure and for activity carried out through your account. Tell us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access.

You must not use Legal Buddha unlawfully; submit material you have no right to disclose; impersonate another person; submit abusive, threatening, defamatory or infringing content; misuse the follow up facility to avoid a separate charge; scrape, copy or commercially exploit the platform; interfere with security or operation; or try to access another person's account or data.

The assigned expert assesses submitted content as part of providing the service. Legal Buddha does not automatically scan service communications for abuse or security threats. If an expert reports a suspected breach, authorised personnel may review the relevant material manually and may remove content or suspend access where we reasonably believe this is necessary to protect users, experts, the platform or a third party, to investigate misuse, or to comply with law. Where reasonable, we will explain the action and allow you to contact us. Suspension does not remove rights relating to a service already purchased.

11 Documents and other content you provide

You retain ownership of content you submit. You give us a limited, non-exclusive permission to host, store, copy, transmit, disclose to the assigned expert (including, for context, your earlier questions and the answers given to them, as described in the Privacy Policy), permit necessary downloads and otherwise use that content only so far as needed to provide the requested service, operate and secure the platform, meet legal obligations and handle complaints or claims. This permission ends when the content is deleted, except for protected backups and copies that we must retain for a legal reason.

This permission does not allow us to publish customer content, make it searchable or available to other customers, use it in advertising, sell it, create a public database from it or use it to train an artificial intelligence model.

You confirm that you are entitled to provide the content and that doing so does not breach a court order, confidentiality duty, intellectual property right or another person's rights. Where documents contain information about another person, you should provide only what is relevant and, where appropriate, tell that person about the disclosure.

Our Privacy Policy explains how personal information in questions and documents is used and protected.

12 Intellectual property in our content

The platform, branding, software and general materials belong to us or our licensors. We grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use an answer and related materials for your own personal purposes or internal business purposes connected with the matter raised.

You may edit, sign and submit a bespoke document bought from us for its intended matter. You must not resell answers or documents, publish them as a competing information product, build a database from them, remove ownership notices from platform materials, or reproduce a substantial part of the service without permission. These restrictions do not prevent you from giving a purchased document to a court, tribunal, public authority, opponent, adviser or other recipient for the matter for which it was prepared.

13 Complaints

If you are dissatisfied, contact us through the support function in your account. Please identify the service, explain the issue and state the outcome sought. We will acknowledge and investigate the complaint and provide a reasoned response without undue delay.

Legal Buddha is not within the Legal Ombudsman's jurisdiction, or that of any equivalent body in another country, merely because it supplies legal information or assistance. Experts do not act for customers in a regulated professional capacity through Legal Buddha, so the complaints scheme of an expert's professional regulator does not apply to the Legal Buddha service merely because the expert holds a regulated qualification. If a consumer dispute remains unresolved, our final response will state whether we are willing or required to use an alternative dispute resolution provider and, if so, identify that provider.

Complaints about personal data are handled under the Privacy Policy.

14 Our responsibility for loss

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability where it would be unlawful to do so, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or liability arising from a consumer's statutory right to services performed with reasonable care and skill.

If you are a consumer, we are responsible for loss or damage that is a foreseeable result of our breach of contract or failure to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss that was not foreseeable, was not caused by our breach, or could reasonably have been avoided by your following clear advice or taking reasonable steps. We are not responsible for business losses suffered by a consumer, including loss of profit, revenue, opportunity or business interruption.

If you use the service wholly or mainly for business purposes, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, revenue, anticipated savings, goodwill, business opportunity or data, except where the law does not permit that exclusion. Nothing in this paragraph limits payment obligations or liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

15 Privacy and security

Our Privacy Policy explains how we use personal information, who may access private service content and how long it is kept. No internet service can guarantee absolute security. You must use a strong password, protect access to your email and device, and avoid submitting information that is not needed for your question. Confidential handling under these terms does not create a lawyer and client relationship or legal professional privilege.

16 Changes to these terms

The terms in force when you purchase a service govern that purchase. We may change the terms for future use or purchases, including to reflect changes in law, the service or security requirements. We will publish the new version and its effective date. We will not materially change an existing paid contract without your agreement unless the change is required by law and does not unfairly reduce your rights.

17 Governing law and courts

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.

If you are a consumer, this does not deprive you of the protection of mandatory provisions of the law of the country, or part of the United Kingdom, where you are habitually resident. Consumers living in the United Kingdom may bring proceedings in the courts of the part of the United Kingdom where they live. Consumers living elsewhere may bring proceedings in the courts of England and Wales or, where the law that applies to them gives them that right, in the courts of the country where they live.

In all other cases, the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

18 Contact details

You can contact us through the support function in your Legal Buddha account.

Model cancellation form

Complete and return this form only if you wish to cancel a contract and still have a cancellation right.

To Legal Buddha (sent through the support function in your Legal Buddha account).

I give notice that I cancel my contract for the following service:

Order or transaction reference:

Ordered on:

Name of consumer:

Address of consumer:

Signature of consumer, required only if this form is sent on paper:

Date: