An alternate source for art-specific legal informations - including overviews of the UK copyright laws, licensing, contracts, studios, legacies and wills, moral rights, artists resale royalty right and publication right - is the Artlaw Archive. The Archive is a full listing of legal articles written by artlaw specialist and barrister Henry Lydiate for Art Monthly magazine. Go to the dedicated Artlaw Archive site for more information and articles - click on the logo at the top of any screen.

Taking someone to court is a very costly business, and not something to be entered into lightly. You could well end up seriously out of pocket and lumbered with paying their legal bills as well. In general, you should only consider court action when someone has demonstrably broken the law - for breach of contract, for example, or lack of payment under contractual terms, copyright violations or intellectual property theft. Many law firms that specialise with artists can offer a free first consultation, and these can be found in the Legal advisors section.

If you do decide you need legal representation, find a specialist in the area you require, ask them what they charge per hour and inform them of your spending limit. Some solicitors firms may be flexible over the eventual cost. Even though the rate is specified per hour, this often breaks down into units of time. Solicitors can be very expensive, charging from around £120 - £150 an hour. If you are self-employed you can join small business organisations that offer free legal representation or you can take out legal cover from specialist insurance brokers. This is again listed in the Legal advisers section.

Most of the questions we are asked at Artquest relate to copyright. Please see our introduction to copyright and licensing in this section for more information. We are also asked frequently about how to set up an organisation, health and safety legislation, insurance and intellectual property. These all have their own sub-sections within Legal.

Sample Legal Contracts at Own-it.org

Own It's comprehensive set of legal contracts and agreements are now live on their website, and available to registered users for download. Registration is free. The free-of-charge legal template documents cover a wealth of issues that might arise for the small creative business: from simple copyright, visual artists' commission agreements and production agreements to more complex media rights, music video agreements between artist and record company and commissioning agreements for writers. Over 300 documents have been created in plain English and are the same as those that a solicitor would normally charge hundreds of pounds to create. They can be used repetitively and customised by individuals to incorporate logos and headings, personalised cover pages or passed on to a solicitor to reduce legal costs. See www.own-it.org/ipinfo/contracts for information, registration and downloading the free contracts.