What To Do If You Have A Bad Credit Rating
A credit rating (also known as a credit score) can play a vital role in a person's financial life. A good credit rating indicates responsible...
Business & Tax
What is IP?
Does the law protect ideas? Intellectual property consists of the legal categories of trademark, design, copyright and patent. A fundamental...
Do We Have An Agreement? An introduction to the law of contracts
A contract is a legally binding agreement between one or more parties. These agreements set out the terms and conditions of a transaction. If...
Managing and Resolving Shareholder Disputes
A shareholder is a person who owns shares in a company. This person can be an individual or another company. Ensuring shareholder disputes are...
Understanding Share Sale Agreements
Understanding share sale agreements is essential for corporate clients navigating the sale of shares in Australian businesses. Investors and...
Growing your business – understanding equipment leases
Pros One of the obvious benefits of leasing equipment, rather than purchasing it outright, is that instead of paying a large lump sum, the cost...
Protecting business owners from personal liability
Using a company structure Historically, the reason companies came into existence was to protect investors from personal liability should the...
Exclusion clauses – are they valid?
Can you be bound by clauses you have not read? The answer is yes. Over many years there have been cases where terms and conditions are shown...
Does your business need standard terms and conditions?
Whenever a business supplies goods or services to a customer that supply is under a contract. Every time you go to a shop and buy anything, or...
Asset Protection – What we learned from Covid
Be ready – liquidation can happen suddenly When a company runs out of money, it may need to be put into liquidation quickly. Otherwise, directors...
Alternative Dispute Resolution – avoiding the cost and risk of litigation
What is alternative dispute resolution (ADR)? The term ADR is used to describe dispute resolution processes that do not involve traditional...
The Benefits of a Non-Disclosure Agreement
An NDA establishes a legal framework for maintaining confidentiality, instils trust in business relationships, deters breaches, and provides...
Managing commercial disputes – key steps and processes
Commercial dispute resolution Dispute resolution is a way of settling disputes either by litigation or through other available means. Many people...
The benefits of mediation in a commercial dispute
Lawyers know that Court cases are expensive and that clients are fearful that legal costs could escalate to an intolerable level. Lawyers interested...
When Can I Terminate a Contract?
Various reasons may justify the termination of a contract, such as breach by another party, frustration, mistake, and force majeure. However,...
Asset Protection – Is Your Home Really Safe?
Traditional asset protection Some occupations are well-known for involving financial risk, such as engineering or building. However, Covid 19...
Which is the best structure for a business?
Tax An important factor is minimising income tax. This applies especially if your intention is to run a profitable business well into the future.The...
Heads of Agreement – what are they?
So, what do these terms actually mean? Simply put, they refer to a preliminary agreement, a document that is signed before the parties are ready...
Director Identification Numbers
Who needs a DIN? Every director of every Australian company must have a DIN. This includes foreign directors. What is the deadline for obtaining...
Business names, company names, trademarks and domain names – what is the difference?
Company names Every company must have a name, and an Australian Company Number (ACN) and most have a unique Australian Business Number (ABN)....
A Guide to Shareholder Agreements
A shareholder agreement sets out up front how disputes and deadlocks are to be resolved and allows shareholders to resolve issues which arise...
Estate planning for companies
COMPANIES OWNED BY ONE FAMILY Many businesses are run by a company in which the shares are owned by the person who runs the business, either...
Death of a Shareholder
For most companies, the best solution is an agreement for the shares of the deceased to pass to the surviving shareholder(s) on payment of an...
Just sign here… ‘silent’ directors beware
This is commonly known as a ‘silent director’. While there is no general rule that prohibits this, it is important to understand the duties...
Shareholders agreements
How useful are standard shareholders agreements? Most shareholders agreements are based on standard formats. Solicitors generally have one or...
Why are most shareholders agreements useless?
Standard shareholders agreements When preparing a shareholders agreement, most solicitors use a standard template and assume that “one size...
Shareholders agreements – what can we learn from the Grill’d case?
Background Grill’d opened its first restaurant in 2004, the brainchild of friends Simon Crowe, Simon McNamara and Geoff Bainbridge. Since...
Using super to buy real estate
The problem used to be that, if a superannuation fund borrowed money and was unable to repay the loan, the lender could sell up the other assets...
The long arm of credit agencies
A couple of years ago, we sued for a debt, but the debtor disappeared before we could enforce payment. When the debtor subsequently applied for...
Security over your own company
Many small companies are funded from money invested by the directors, or by directors leaving their salaries or other payments in the company....
Return of deposits
The deposit represents not only part of the purchase price but also, and more importantly, a pledge to bind the bargain.The question of deposits...
Cost-effective debt collecting
Effective debt collection Controlling debtors is an important part of business management. Clients who refuse to pay or pay late can destroy...