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Get your contracts checked by a lawyer!

Get your contracts checked by a lawyer!

by | Aug 12, 2017 | Contracts, Law for Online Business, Video

Get your contracts checked by a lawyer!

Why getting a contract checked by a lawyer can save you thousands!

Today I wanted to share a quick thing with you about checking your contracts.

We’ve got a client selling an aspect of their business. They’re selling it for $230,000. So what they’re selling is not their company, they’re selling the assets of the company. Now, they came to us and said, “Is this something I should get checked by a lawyer?”

Well, it’s worth $230,000 to you. Do you want to keep that money? Do you want to protect it? Do you want to make sure the transaction goes through and you get the money? It’s going to cost them around $1,500 to get us to review the contract, check that it’s all right, suggest changes, highlight risks and protect their interests.

Do you reckon that’s worth $230,000? 

How can Onyx Legal help you?

For any agreement you want to go into that involves more money than you can afford to lose, talk to one of our team so we can prepare or run through the contract for you to help you to protect your interests and hang on to your hard earned money.

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How to set up effective ‘terms of service’

How to set up effective ‘terms of service’

by | Jul 28, 2017 | Contracts, Law for Online Business, Service Agreements, Video

How to set up effective ‘terms of service’

 betteDo you have terms of service that help you manage client work?

One of the topics that came up at an Angel Investor and Entrepreneur breakfast was terms of service.

One of the people I was speaking to is in the website and marketing design and development space, and the challenge that they’ve got is clients who don’t give them material they’ve asked for, like images or written content.

The problem is they have no service contract that says “if you don’t give us material in 7 days, then we can continue as if there’s no changes or we can go on and get the work done“.

The challenge for the designer is that they have a workflow they’re trying to work with and a work stream and they have staff allocated to certain projects and if you can’t move forward in a project, it messes up the whole business. You end up with staff who have nothing to do and other staff who are overwhelmed because clients simply don’t respond with the required information.

One of the things you can use terms of service for is to manage the relationship with your clients and to get them to give you information that you need from them in order for you to complete the work you need to get the job done.

You might like to do business with a handshake, but written contracts aren’t a bad thing. The reason you put them in writing is to better manage expectations and manage relationships. 

How can Onyx Legal help you?

If you would like to have a service agreement or terms of service prepared to fit your business, in a way that supports how you would like to run your buisness, let us help you. We usually start by requesting a copy of your typical work proposal and any details of any issues you’ve had in the past that you’d like to avoid in the future.

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How to Deal with Unfair Contract Terms

How to Deal with Unfair Contract Terms

by | Jun 18, 2017 | Contracts, Law for Online Business, Video

How to Deal with Unfair Contract Terms

Rules Against Unfair Contract Terms Apply to B2B Transactions

As you can see, I’m on the road today visiting some clients and business meetings, and that is a plane I can hear in the background.

One thing I wanted to talk to you about today is we’ve got a client who has been involved in a business-to-business relationship. The relationship started early in 2017, so after the changes to Australian Consumer Law in November 2016, and some of the provisions in the contract that our client has entered into are unfair contract terms.

Under Australian Consumer Law, unfair contract terms are terms that, for example, will give one party the right to do something but not the other party. So for example, only one party being able to end the agreement.

In this particular instance, our client was signed up to do a certain thing for a certain period of time. The other party didn’t deliver, so they cancelled and they exited. But the person they signed up with is still trying to charge them money. It’s just not going to be enforceable under the changes to Australian Consumer Law, unfair business terms because it matches all the indicators that would enable the court to determine the provision void and unenforceable. As a business owner, you should be aware that unfair contract terms now apply in business-to-business transactions involving small business. 

How can Onyx Legal help you?

Make an Appointment to have us review your contracts and bring them up to date for ease of understanding and legal compliance. If you worried that your contracts include unfair terms that affect you, or affect your customers, we can let you know your available options.

Book an Appointment

Is the Law Black and White?

Is the Law Black and White?

by | Jun 15, 2017 | Law for Online Business, Video

Is the Law Black and White?

No, the law is not black and white

I’m on the road today in between meetings and just thought I’d share something with you. I’ve heard again this morning that law is very black and white.

Actually, it’s not. If it was black and white we wouldn’t need lawyers, we wouldn’t need courts to argue over what something means.

There’s a joke going around that if you give a sentence to six lawyers and ask them to tell you what it means, you’ll get six different meanings. It’s true. So, don’t assume that law is black and white.

Yes, we try and get clear, concise decisions by putting together contracts, and agreements, and stuff like that, but if things weren’t subject to interpretation, we wouldn’t have courts and we wouldn’t have a whole bunch of lawyers that we do today. So, no, law is not black and white. It’s all shades of grey and it is subject to interpretation.

One thing I say to people is, if you’re going to get into a dispute, if you think court is the answer, you have never got better than a 50/50 chance of winning.

I’ve been involved in cases which we thought we were dead set going to win, and we’ve lost. I’ve been involved in cases where we just thought we were going to lose and we’ve won.

There’s so many things that it’s subject to on the day, or on the days of court, that you can’t predict what the decision is going to be. So don’t think law and courts are the only way, and you’re going to get justice or it’s going to turn out your way.

You can’t make those assumptions. You’ve got to look at the cost, and the time, and everything else involved. So, please keep that in mind. 

How can Onyx Legal help you?

If you’d like to resolve a dispute without having to go to court and need a hand with your negotiation, Talk to one of our team to find out how we can best support you in getting to a result you can live with now, so that you can get on with business.

Make an Appointment

Should you Register a Trade Mark?

Should you Register a Trade Mark?

by | Jun 4, 2017 | Law for Online Business, Trademark, Video

Should you Register a Trade Mark?

Knowing When to Register a Trade Mark 

(In Australia we write ‘trade mark’ as two words, in the US its ‘trademark’).

I’ve just been at a Angel Investor and Entrepreneur breakfast. One of the things we were talking about this morning was branding and looking at how to use your branding and how you might leverage your business and change the direction of your business in the future. So, whether or not you actually want to register trade marks now, what trade marks are worth registering? All of those sorts of questions came up.

One of the considerations that you can give before making a decision to register a trade mark or not is:

Where is the value in my business?

So, if the value is in the trade mark, then it’s worth registering. If the value is in some other aspect of the business, maybe you want to invest your money more in that first before you register a trade mark. Just something to think about. For more detail have a look at our guest post on Problogger.com about registering a trademark without hiccups. 

Also, remember that not all things are capable of being registered as trade marks.

General descriptions and place names can’t be registered. We had a client once who said, “Hey, I want to register this trademark and it’s just been rejected by the trademark office. Can you tell me why?” The reason their application was rejected was because they wanted to register something like “Auto Sales, Brisbane“. It’s too generic. There’s no way you’re going to get that registered as a trade mark, because too many people in the same industry need to be able to use those words in that kind of order.

So just remember that not everything is capable of being registered as a trade mark and trade mark registration, although important, may not be your top priority right now.

How can Onyx Legal help you?

We can help you get your trade mark registered. We will help you identify the right classes and descriptions to protect your business and manage the process until your registration certificate comes through.

Make an Appointment

Delay in Action for Defamation Could Affect Your Claim

Delay in Action for Defamation Could Affect Your Claim

by | May 22, 2017 | Law for Online Business, Privacy, Video

Delay in Action for Defamation Could Affect Your Claim

You need to be quick if you are worried about being defamed. 

A couple of quick tips today that have come out of our work.

We had an inquiry about defamation. Now, if you are going to get upset about what somebody says about you, you need to take action quickly.

The person who spoke to us was concerned about something that was said back about six months before their call. It may be too late to take action. It may be implied that the defamatory statements were not that serious because the complainant knew about them for a long time and didn’t complain or take action earlier.

On the other hand, it should also be possible in that length of time to work out whether or not the complainant has actually suffered any damage to their reputation and it may be possible that a culmination of repeated publications over that length of time start to have a negative impact on the complainant so that action to stop defamation does become necessary. 

We’ll have to look at the enquiry we have received more carefully before deciding how to proceed, but if someone is going to defame you, you need to take action. You need to decide what you’re going to do quickly. Don’t sit on it.

So your tip for today, if you feel you’ve been defamed, do something about it now. 

How can Onyx Legal help you?

If you are concerned that you have been defamed on social media, or you are managing a social media group and have received a request to remove defamatory material, make an appointment so we can let you know what steps to take next.

Make an Appointment