Legal Practitioner in NW Tasmania|Tasmania Legal Practitioner

CONTRACTS

Contracts are part of everyday life. They come up in all sorts of contexts

Profile 1: CONTRACTS: Is this a good contract?

Contracts are part of everyday life. They come up in all sorts of contexts and circumstances –

You want to sell or buy goods or services.
You want to sell our buy a business.
You want to make a deal with another person or business.
You want to form a business relationship.
You want to create an employment relationship.
You want to engage someone as an independent contractor.
You want to invest in something.
You want to purchase some valuable insurance cover.

What could go wrong, if you don't have the right sort of contract?

You are exposed to risks and liabilities that you should have been protected from.
You don't acquire rights and safeguards that you could have acquired.
The agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on.
You fail to get the best possible agreement you could have got.
Neither party is clear on his/her rights and obligations increasing the chance of future disputes.
You end up paying more than you should have had to pay.
The outcomes/results fall far short of your expectations and there is nothing you can do.
The deliverables are too vague and imprecise to be enforced.
The other party is able to take advantage of you in ways that a good contract would have prevented.
You fail to protect your valuable intellectual property and allow others to profit from it without you being suitably compensated.
If a dispute breaks out, you are faced with expensive, time consuming and stressful litigation, because your contract lacked the right suite of clauses to promote fast, effective and efficient out of court options to manage and resolve the dispute.

Having quality effective contracts in place puts you ahead of the game and gives you peace of mind.

What we can do for you –

Review and advise you regarding any contract;
Improve and upgrade poorly drafted contracts;
Draft the right contract to suit your needs;
Protect your interests and safeguard you from avoidable risks.
Assist you to resolve contract disputes more quickly and cost effectively using out of court strategies.

Litigation v Non-Litigious dispute resolution options – Contract disputes argued in court can easily cost each party over $50,000 and sometimes much more.

Litigation can take 1-3 years to complete, including possible appeals.

In contrast, early intervention using alternative dispute management and resolution techniques and strategies (e.g. assisted negotiation, mediation, conciliation and arbitration) can have disputes resolved within 8 weeks within a typical cost range of $5,000 -$10,000 shared between the parties.

FAMILY LAW

My Relationship is definitely over and it's time to move on

Profile 2: FAMILY LAW

My Relationship is definitely over and it's time to move on – how do I secure a just and equitable property settlement?

Divorce and de-facto relationship break ups are unfortunately all too common. Feelings are hurt, and defences are up.

Getting early access to the right sort of competent, rational and balanced advice is really important and can make a huge difference to outcomes.

Rushing into the arms of "white knight" lawyers to engage in hard fought litigious "lawfare" is often not the right decision to make, as it may prove very time consuming, costly and stressful.

Working out shared parenting arrangements at the same time as trying to agree on property division can easily heighten the tensions and increase the risk of giving away a lot of your time and money to lawyers and the court system.

There are often better ways, choices and options open to you, if you get to the right advice and guidance soon enough.

Most judges and experienced lawyers will urge you to make going to court your very last resort. We believe this, and don't just pay it lip service.

So how can we help?–

Let us triage your case, explore the relevant interests and issues, and present you with a total blueprint to achieve property settlement in the shortest possible time and at the lowest possible cost to you;
Use our skills and experience to extract the maximum cooperation and collaboration from the other party and his/her lawyer substantially minimising your legal costs;
Employ our negotiation skills to get you results as good as or better than if you spent years in court;
Provide mediation services in cases where both parties are willing to opt in to a mediation process before making any choice to go to court or not;
Initiate court action on your behalf at any time we believe this is justified and in your best interests.

Under the Family Law Act there are ways to resolve and settle property disputes out of court using binding financial agreements. However, in more complex cases, we will encourage the parties to agree on a set of final consent orders and then apply to the Court to review and approve them as orders of the court.

Warning – beware expensive lawyers who push you into court!

On 14 December 2017, the following headline appeared in The Australian newspaper "Judge slams obscene legal fees". A family court judge accused a number of lawyers of charging obscenely high fees in family law disputes. He said their attitude and approach was "win at all costs, concede little or nothing and chase every rabbit down every hole". He said this attitude and approach is destructive of the emotional, social and financial wellbeing of the parties and their children."

We are the antithesis of this criticised approach.

BUSINESS START UP

I am starting my own business – what do I need

Profile 3: BUSINESS START UP

I am starting my own business – what do I need to do to protect it and avoid future problems?

Starting a new business can be exciting but it raises a whole lot of important legal needs that if not attended to at the right time may sow the seeds for later troubles and disappointment.

Some of the key issues at start up stage –

Entity choice and set up – e.g. sole proprietor, partnership, company or trust or combination of company and trust.
Tax minimisation.
Creating and protecting intellectual property.
Contracts with joint venture partners, suppliers and staff.
Finance agreements.
Privacy law issues if you will be collecting personal information from potential or actual clients or customers.

If you can get all this sorted out early, all the better. It will give you peace of mind and more confidence to pursue your business goals.

Don't fall into the trap of getting so caught up in getting things started and chasing deals and revenue that you neglect these legal issues that are so vital to protect and safeguard your business from problems and threats down the line.

BUSINESS GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

I've got traction, loyal customers, work flow

Profile # 4: BUSINESS GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT:

I've got traction, loyal customers, work flow, staff, increasing net profit and I am ready to do some deals to further grow and expand the business – what do I need to pay attention to in order to manage my risk and protect my interests?

You have been in business more than a year and have traction in your chosen market. You are going places. Now is the time to give careful attention to properly managing the growth cycle.

Growth and expansion can raise the following issues for your business –

Negotiating good supplier agreements;
Effective employment and/or independent contractor agreements;
Intellectual Property protection;
Building up IP assets for eventual commercialisation and to improve the value of your business for possible future sale;
ecuring sound agreements with joint venture partners;
Understanding Workplace and Employment laws and minimising risks of being sued;
Gaining a strong grasp of consumer protection laws and ensuring all your internal policies and contracts are in harmony with those laws;
Risk management and protecting your business against all potential risks via good contracts and proper insurance cover;
Website content and online marketing and ensuring your business does not breach consumer laws, third party intellectual property rights, privacy laws and electronic personal information protection laws.

We can do a full audit of your business in these key areas and identify any gaps requiring your attention and advise you on implementation steps.

EMPLOYMENT DISPUTE MANAGEMENT

My staff are vital to my business success

Profile 5: EMPLOYMENT DISPUTE MANAGEMENT

My staff are vital to my business success and I cannot afford to get caught up in messy and expensive disputes – what can I do to mitigate this risk?

Any business that neglects this area of prudent business management is "an accident waiting to happen". The smaller businesses are most at risk because employee law suits can become a major distraction, a huge drain on cash flow and potentially damage your business reputation.

Prevention is the key.

Prevention and risk management are mainly achieved via –

Getting effective employment contracts drafted, or upgrading existing ones, that will include well drafted dispute identification, dispute management and dispute resolution clauses;
Effective internal policies and procedures;
Well drafted internal staff management and staff supervision policies and procedures;
Building a vibrant and attractive internal culture within the business and getting everyone on board with it;
Strong governance and oversight.

We can help you achieve this. Specifically, we can help you by –

Reviewing and upgrading your contracts;
Drafting new contracts where necessary;
Offering on tap advice and guidance;
Offering our early intervention dispute management services to nip employment disputes in the bud, saving you time, stress and money.
Offering our mediation services where both parties agree to it;
Offering in court/tribunal legal representation as needed.

WILL AND ESTATE DISPUTES

My father has recently passed away and I am upset that his last will and testament

Profile 6: WILL AND ESTATE DISPUTES

My father has recently passed away and I am upset that his last will and testament doesn't fairly distribute his estate between my brothers and I. Mum passed away before Dad, so it is just the three of us children left. Dad appointed my two older brothers as joint executors and they are about to apply for probate of the Will. What can I do?

The law respects the right of a person who owns assets to make his or her own last will and testament to say how his or her estate should be distributed after death. However, the law also expects a testator to act fairly and reasonably in how he/she disposes of the estate, and if the Will fails, without proper justification, to provide or adequately provide for legitimate needs of the surviving spouse and/or children, the law can intervene to correct that unfairness.

This area of law is called family provision and maintenance.

Sometimes the validity of the Will is called into question and there are grounds to challenge the Will.

If a person dies without having made a Will (intestate), it can raise its own special legal issues. Each State and Territory has its own laws that apply on intestacy, but if the statutory formula will lead to unfairness amongst the possible beneficiaries of the estate, an eligible person can still make application to the court to intervene and adjust how the estate is apportioned between the eligible statutory beneficiaries. We are specialists in this area and can advise and recommend the best options to protect and safeguard the rights and interests of eligible claimants.

Specifically, we can help you in the following ways –

Reviewing any Will and giving advice regarding its validity;
Advising you on how to challenge a Will, if we advise the Will is likely to be held to be invalid;
Advising you regarding potential claims for family provision and maintenance out of a deceased estate, whether or not there is a Will;
Assisting you to negotiate out of court settlements in cases of disputed Wills and/or claims for family provision or maintenance;
Offering our mediation service where all parties to agree to it;
Offering in court legal representation as necessary.

Estate disputes that end up being litigated are notoriously long, stressful and costly. The high legal costs whittle away the value of the estate, leaving less for all beneficiaries.

Hence, we employ our skills and experience in non-litigious dispute management and resolution methods and strategies to secure fair and equitable outcomes in the shortest possible time and at the least expense. Out of court settlements will usually need to be approved by the court.

Estate disputes that end up in court can easily cost the estate over $50,000 in legal costs and sometimes much more.

To help keep money in the estate, and not let it be squandered in court proceedings, we have become specialists is helping parties reach negotiated out of court settlements at a fraction of the time and cost of litigation.